Final death penalty verdict read out to war criminal Kamaruzzaman, asked if he wants pardon

Dhaka Central Jail authorities have read out Monday’s final verdict by the top appeals court to war criminal and death row convict Mohammad Kamaruzzaman.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 8 April 2015, 01:30 PM
Updated : 8 April 2015, 01:35 PM

Senior Jail Superintendent Forman Ali asked the Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general whether he

wanted presidential pardon on Wednesday, a top jail official told bdnews24.com on condition of anonymity.

It is one of the final formalities required by law before the war criminal’s execution could be carried out.

If he does, then they would forward the mercy petition to the government, a senior jail official told bdnews24.com earlier.

Otherwise, they will inform the government and wait for further instructions, he had said.

Asked whether the convict may seek time to think over the petition, he replied: “We will also inform the government in that case.”

The same procedures were followed when war criminal and Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla was executed in December 2013.

Molla did not file mercy petition, the government had said then.

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha and the three other judges of the Appellate Division bench that rejected defence plea to review the sentence on Monday, signed the 36-page document on Wednesday afternoon.

The other judges are Justice Abdul Wahhab Miah, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury.

The order reached the Supreme Court’s relevant wing around 3pm, according to Additional Registrar Md Sabbir Foyez.

Once the issue of the presidential pardon is resolved or if the Jamaat-e-Islami senior assistant secretary general does not go for that option, the jail authorities will initiate steps to carry out the execution, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had said earlier.

State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said on Tuesday the prison authorities were prepared to carry out the verdict.

After the Appellate Division dismissed the review plea, the jail authorities buckled up to carry out the executions.

Kamaruzzaman’s family met him in the jail on Monday night after the prison authorities contacted them.

On May 9, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 found him guilty in five of the seven charges levelled against him.

The tribunal ordered death for him on two charges, including the killing of 120 men and raping of women in Sohaghpur village at Sherpur’s Nalitabarhi on July 25, 1971.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in its original verdict unanimously found him guilty of the charge and sentenced him to death by majority.

But it reduced the death sentence awarded for the other charge to life.

The Appellate Division also upheld the tribunal’s verdict of life in prison and 10-year jail term in two other charges, but acquitted him of another charge.

The war crimes tribunal issued a death warrant for him on Feb 19 this year, a day after the full Supreme Court verdict upholding the death was published.

The execution process stalled following a plea to review the sentence filed on Mar 5, which was turned by the top appeals court on Monday.