Full Kamaruzzaman verdict at war crimes tribunal

The full verdict on Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Md Kamaruzzaman, sentenced to death for his 1971 war crimes, has been sent to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) hours after it was published.

A copy of the verdict, published by the Appellate Division earlier in the day, arrived at ICT around 8pm Wednesday, the tribunal’s Registrar Md Mostafizur Rahman told bdnews24.com.

“We have received the full verdict’s copy around 8pm. Now we are checking the annexures,” he said.

A little earlier, Supreme Court Registrar Syed Aminul Islam told bdnews24.com that the copy was sent to ICT and it was formally received there.

The ICT-2 on May 9, 2013 had sentenced to death Kamaruzzaman, who led the Al Badr in Mymensingh during the Liberation War in 1971.

The Appellate Division upheld the verdict on Nov 3 that year.

Apart from Surendra Kumar Sinha, now chief justice, justices Md Abdul Wahhab Miah, Hasan Foez Siddique and AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury signed the verdict on Wednesday.

It was published later in the day.

The tribunal will be able to start the process of issuing a death warrant for the convict , but it may hit the wall for a while if the defence files a review petition.

Both prosecutors and the law minister have confirmed that the decision that will come following the hearing of the review petition on the verdict will be executed swiftly.

The issue of reviewing the verdicts on the 1971 war criminals ran into much controversy after the judgment on the first appeal against Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla’s life imprisonment.

Kamaruzzaman, as a convicted war criminal, after getting a certified copy of the full verdict will be able to file the review petition at the Appellate Division within 15 days from its publication.