Jail authorities read out death warrant to Jamaat chief Nizami

Authorities at the Kashimpur prison in Gazipur have read out the death warrant to war crimes convict Motiur Rahman Nizami.

Gazipur Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 16 March 2016, 05:22 AM
Updated : 16 March 2016, 04:30 PM

The warrant issued by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) was out on Tuesday after the Supreme Court published the full copy of the verdict.

It reached Dhaka Central Jail-2 in Gazpiur after 9am on Wednesday.

“The death warrant was read out to Nizami around 10:15am. He then signed it,” the prison superintendent Prashant Kumar Banik told bdnews24.com.

“He appeared to be anxious and said he would file for a review of the verdict.”

He said Nizami’s counsel may meet with him on Wednesday.

The Jamaat chief will have to file the review petition within 15 days of the publication of the full verdict.

The countdown begins on Wednesday, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told bdnews24.com.

“The government will start the process to carry out the execution if no-one files the review petition before the deadline,” he said on Tuesday.

If the death sentence is upheld, the war crimes convict will have the opportunity to seek mercy from the president.

If the Jamaat leader declines to seek a review of the verdict or if he is denied pardon, the government will order the jail authorities to hang him.

The ICT had, on Oct 29, 2014, ordered his execution for murders and rape in Pabna and for the mass killing of intellectuals during the 1971 War of Independence.

Out of the 16 charges levelled by the prosecution, the war crimes tribunal found Nizami guilty on eight counts.

A four-member top appeals bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha on Jan 6 this year upheld Nizami’s capital punishment for orchestrating the massacre of Bangladesh’s best minds with the help of the ruthless Al-Badr militia.

Nizami’s case is the sixth of all war crimes cases so far, to come to the stage of a review petition after publication of the full verdict.

The 72-year old is the third former minister who is facing the gallows for war crimes.

Nizami, who was the industries minister during the BNP-led 2001-06 Four-Party alliance government, was also handed the death penalty in 2014 for arms trafficking in Chittagong’s sensational 10-truck arms haul case.