The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted Mobarak Hossain, a death row convict in a war crimes case, overturning the 2014 International Crimes Tribunal-1 verdict.
The tribunal in 2014 sentenced Mobarak, a former Jamaat-e-Islami member and expelled Awami League leader, to death, finding him guilty of committing atrocities in Brahmanbaria during the 1971 Liberation War.
On Wednesday, a four-member bench, led by chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, allowed Mobarak鈥檚 appeal challenging the ICT verdict and overturned the tribunal鈥檚 sentence.
The court directed the prison authorities to release Mobarak if he was not detained in any other case.
He is the second war crimes convict acquitted on appeal, following the recent release of Jamaat leader ATM Azharul Islam, who had also been sentenced to death in 2014.
Azharul was acquitted after the August 5, 2024 fall of prime minister Sheikh Hasina amid a student-led mass uprising.
The Appellate Division began hearing Mobarak鈥檚 appeal on July 8 and concluded it on July 23.
The ICT had found Mobarak guilty on five charges, including genocide, abduction, torture, and murder. He was accused of being a Razakar commander involved in the massacre of 33 villagers in Akhaura.
Defence lawyers SM Shajahan and Imran Abdullah Siddiq argued that the prosecution鈥檚 case was riddled with contradictions.
They said that the investigation officer admitted that Mobarak was not a Razakar, and there were inconsistencies in the timing of the massacre.
While the formal charge said it took place on the night of July 22, 1971, witnesses claimed it happened the next morning.
The defence also noted that the conviction was based largely on the testimony of a single witness, without any independent corroboration.
Prosecutor Gazi Monwar Hossain Tamim, however, argued that the charges had been proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
Mobarak had served as the organising secretary of a local Awami League unit in Akhaura for 16 years.
He was expelled from the party following the emergence of war crimes allegations.
The initial case against Mobarak was filed in 2009 by Khodeja Begum, whose father was allegedly killed by the accused during the war. The case was later transferred to the International Crimes Tribunal-1.
On March 12, 2013, the tribunal accepted the charges against Mobarak and ordered his detention.
