COURT CORRESPONDENT

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, in the full text of a verdict released recently, expressed regret over its earlier judgement, which had upheld the conviction and death sentence of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam in a case filed over crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War.

“This Division [Appellate Division] acknowledges, with a profound sense of judicial responsibility, that in its earlier adjudication, it failed to give due and dispassionate consideration to the evidentiary deficiencies and the broader context in which the allegations of crimes against humanity were framed against the appellant,” said the seven-member bench, headed by then chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, in the 74-page verdict.

“The earlier judgement regrettably fell short of the

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