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Tight security has been enforced in Bangladesh capital as the Supreme Court is set to deliver a crucial verdict on Tuesday on the fate of a top Jamaat-e-Islami leader who was sentenced to life by a tribunal on war crimes.
A bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice M Muzammel Hossain will deliver the judgment on appeals against a special tribunal verdict which in February this year handed down life sentence to Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah.
This is the first such case which came for the apex court review while two Bangladeshi International Crimes Tribunals are trying the high-profile accused of "crimes against humanity" during the 1971 Liberation War against Pakistan.
But the tribunal verdict against 65-year-old Mollah, an assistant secretary general of the fundamentalist party which was opposed to Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan, triggered massive controversies and protracted street protests by 1971 veterans and youngsters who believed the punishment was too lenient compared to his crimes.
The virtual uprising of the youths, who staged round the clock sit-in vigil for weeks at the Shahbagh in the capital and protested in other major cities, prompted the government to amend a law on war crimes trial which earlier allowed the defence alone to challenge the verdicts.
But Mollah's lawyers too challenged the amendment before the apex court, saying it would not be applicable in their client's case as it was made after the tribunal handed down its judgment.
The tribunal verdict was delivered amidst violent street campaigns by Jamaat across the country and in pockets known to be its stronghold leading to violence that left over 150 people dead since February.
During the course of hearing, the apex court appointed seven senior lawyers as amici curiae or "impartial advisers to a court in a particular case" to suggest if the recent amendment related to the war crimes trial would be applicable in Mollah's case since the revised law came after he was tried by the tribunal.
Five of the seven jurists observed that the recent amendment to the International Crimes Tribunal Act giving the government the right to appeal against any verdict should be applicable in Mollah's case also.
Security Authorities have deployed elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion to guard the Supreme Court premises and hundreds of policemen in riot gears at other major city corners as youngsters rallied at the Shahbagh ahead of the judgment.
"Our reaction will depend on the judgment," said Jamaat's lawmaker Habibur Rahman.
But police said they were ready to handle any law and order situation.
