Death-row war criminal Kamaruzzaman refuses to seek presidential pardon

Death-row war crimes convict Mohammad Kamaruzzaman has decided not to seek presidential clemency, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal says.

It means there is now no legal hurdle to execute the Jamaat-e-Islami leader, sentenced to death for his crimes during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.

“He did not want to file a mercy petition,” Kamal said to bdnews24.com on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, the jail authorities asked Kamaruzzaman’s family to meet him in the afternoon.

His execution was put on hold on Friday after much drama as it was still unclear whether he would seek presidential pardon.

Two district magistrates met him on Friday at the jail to ask him about seeking mercy from the head of the state.

A special tribunal sentenced war-time Al-Badr commander Kamaruzzaman to death in 2013. A year later, the Supreme Court court upheld the sentence, saying his crimes were “worse than Nazis”.

Last week, the chief justice-led Appellate Division bench threw out his plea for reviewing the sentence.

The order, sent to jail last Wednesday, was read out to him, setting in motion the process for him to seek clemency.

A convict must admit to his crimes before begging the president for mercy.

Once executed, Kamaruzzaman will be the second war criminal, both from the Jamaat, to pay with his life for wartime crimes.

In 2013, Bangladesh hanged war crimes convict Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla on the very day the top appeals court had rejected his review plea.

State Minister Kamal skirted a direct reply when asked whether a death warrant had been sent to jail.

He said formalities like Kamaruzzaman’s family meeting him and the civil surgeon going to jail were yet to be completed.

“It’s a confidential matter...but everything is under process,” he told bdnews24.com on Saturday afternoon.