The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted Mobarak Hossain, a death row convict in a war crimes case, overturning a 2014 verdict by the International Crimes Tribunal.
Mobarak, a former Jamaat-e-Islami member who was later expelled from the Awami League, had been sentenced to death for committing atrocities in Brahmanbaria during the 1971 Liberation War.
A four-member bench, led by chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, delivered the verdict after allowing his appeal.
The court directed prison authorities to release Mobarak if he is not detained in any other case.
He is the second war crimes convict to be 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 fall of prime minister Sheikh Hasina through a student-led uprising on August 5, 2024.
The Supreme Court 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 in 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 reasonable doubt.
