Prison told to prepare for Kamaruzzaman hanging: Law Minister

Law Minister Anisul Huq says he has told authorities at Dhaka Central Jail to prepare for war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman’s execution.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leader will, however, get the time to seek pardon from the president, he told a press briefing on Wednesday evening.

The law minister was talking to reporters at his home amid arguments over the possibility of a review petition at this stage.

Kamaruzzaman’s lawyers have stated that they will seek review while prosecutors say there is no provision for it.

Last Monday, death sentence for Kamaruzzaman was upheld by the Supreme Court in the final judgment of his appeal against the verdict passed by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 last year.

“There might be questions around a review of the verdict. Death sentence for a case like this has already been carried out. The Appellate Division had rejected the review filed then.

“It is hereby dismissed, it was said in that order,” said Huq about the step by war criminal Abdul Quader Molla’s defence before his execution on Dec 12 last year.

“So we can take into account that there is precedence for rejection of review petition by the honourable Appellate Division. I have to take that and order preparations for carrying out the verdict. And I have given that order.”

Asked whether there was a need for a full verdict before an execution, he said, “There is no mention of a full verdict anywhere… if you abide by the jail code or not.

“What’s mentioned is a short order. A short order is what authorises it.”

Before Huq, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said he believed there was no need to get a full verdict for hanging the guilty. He also reiterated that there was no scope for review.

“Being a tribunal official, I cannot comment on its procedures. We will take measures according to orders,” said Deputy Registrar Arunabha Chakraborty, when asked if the execution will follow a full verdict from the Appellate Division.

What is the usual way to carry out a sentence, he was asked, to which he said: “There is no norm yet, since only one of the tribunals’ verdict has been carried out. We’ll have to work according to directions.”

Kamaruzzaman was visited by 10 members of his family at Dhaka Central Jail in the morning. When asked if it was their last visit, Hassan Imam, one of his sons, said they meet their father often and was confident that it will not be their last one.

Terming his father’s judgment for death penalty the result of an ‘ideological’ one, Hassan Iqbal, his eldest son, asked people to pray for him.

Kamaruzzaman, acting president of Jamaat’s erstwhile student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha at Mymensingh, was found guilty of genocide, murder and torture during the 1971 war.

A commander of vigilante group Al-Badr, he was handed death for aiding Pakistani Army in killing 120 men and raping of women at Sohaghpur, a village at Sherpur’s Nalitabarhi.

Following Molla

The war crimes case against Jamaat’s Abdul Quader Molla was the first to be finalised after the first tribunal was set up in 2009. Molla, who coined the name ‘the Butcher of Mirpur’ for his war time atrocities, was hanged on Dec 12.

His full verdict had come out two and a half months after his sentence was increased to death by the Appellate Division verdict on Sept 17.

On Dec 8, a two-page death warrant along with his 790-page verdict, wrapped in red cloth, was sent to the Dhaka Central Jail from the tribunal.

Shamsul Hoque Tuku, then junior minister for home, said the legal process to hang Molla was completed. On Dec 10, he said the war criminal chose not to plead for presidential pardon.

The prison authorities had scheduled the hanging at 12:01am that night but a sudden order by a Supreme Court chamber judge, approached by Molla’s defence, halted their preparations.

The review petition filed that night was, however, dismissed on Dec 12 after hearings on two days.

Molla’s family was seen arriving for a final visit at the Dhaka Central Jail that very evening. And on 10:01pm, the ‘Butcher of Mirpur’ was hanged by neck, the very first execution following a sentence by Bangladesh’s war crimes tribunal.

It is almost certain that a review will not apply to Kamaruzzaman, since the one over Molla was thrown out.