The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has set September 7 to decide whether the delayed appeal filed by death-row convict Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War, will be admitted.

A bench led by Justice Md Rezaul Haque fixed the date on Monday after a hearing.

Azad filed the appeal nearly 4,915 days after the International Crimes Tribunal’s verdict.

The Appellate Division will first decide whether the delay in filing the appeal can be condoned.

In his application, Azad also sought a stay on his death sentence until the appeal is disposed of.

Senior lawyer Ehsan A Siddiq appeared for Azad, while Chief Prosecutor Md Aminul Islam represented the prosecution.

According to the case documents, the International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Azad to death on January 21, 2013, for crimes against humanity committed in the Faridpur region during the 1971 Liberation War.

It was the first verdict delivered by the International Crimes Tribunal in a crimes against humanity case, 41 years after Bangladesh’s independence.

Azad was a fugitive when the verdict was delivered and was tried in absentia.

He could not file an appeal within the stipulated 30-day period.

Following the political turnover after the 2024 July Uprising, Azad returned to the country and applied to the Ministry of Home Affairs under Section 401 of the Code of Criminal Procedure seeking suspension of his sentence.

Based on the application, the interim government conditionally suspended his sentence for one year on October 22, 2025.

One of the conditions was that he surrender before the court and file an appeal.

Azad surrendered before the International Crimes Tribunal on January 21 this year.

He subsequently filed the appeal with the Appellate Division on July 6, seeking condonation of the 4,915-day delay in filing it.

He has also sought a stay on the death sentence handed down by the tribunal until the appeal is disposed of.

The tribunal tried Azad over allegations of various crimes against humanity committed in Faridpur during the Liberation War and found him guilty of seven of the eight charges, including murder, rape, abduction, detention, arson and looting.

Azad, a former member of Jamaat-e-Islami, later became known as a presenter and speaker of Islamic religious programmes on various private television channels.