Suranjit Sengupta unhappy over delay in Kamaruzzaman’s execution

Ruling party leader Suranjit Sengupta has expressed his dissatisfaction over the delay in war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman’s execution.

The veteran Awami League leader was of the view that the delay was ‘a way to keep the criminal alive’.

Jail authorities had geared up to carry out the execution since Monday after the top appeals court rejected the Jamaat-e-Islami leader’s plea to review his death penalty for 1971 war crimes.

But the issue of whether the convict would seek a presidential clemency is yet to be resolved, stalling the process of implementing the verdict.

Neither the prison authorities nor the government is yet to say anything about when the verdict will be implemented, even four days after war criminal’s review appeal was scrapped.

Former minister Suranjit, who now heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Ministry, said that ‘time has been wasted unnecessarily’ over the matter of presidential clemency.

“How do you expect of those, who did not find 43 years as a ‘reasonable time’ to beg pardon, to do that in three days?” he asked expressing his dismay over the delay at a discussion on Saturday.

He demanded that the verdict be implemented immediately. “I think this [the delay] is a way to keep the criminal alive.”

The International Crimes Tribunal on May 9, 2013, sentenced Al-Badr Commander of Mymensingh Kamaruzzaman to death for his atrocities committed during the Liberation War in 1971.

The Appellate Division had also upheld the sentence, describing his crimes as being “worse than the Nazis”.

Then, on last Monday, Chief Justice SK Sinha-led appellate court rejected his plea for a review of the death penalty.

After that, the Jamaat-e-Islami senior assistant secretary general’s family met him in prison on Apr 6 following a call from the jail authorities.

On Apr 8, the final verdict by the top appeals court reached the jail and was then read out to Kamaruzzaman.

Then started the wait to see whether he would seek presidential clemency.

But confusion rose due to the ambiguity about how much time he would get to seek the pardon or the time that could be taken to settle his mercy petition, if one filed, since it is not mentioned in the International Crimes Tribunal Act.

According to the law, if a death-row convict files the mercy petition the prison authorities will send it to the president. The president will decide once the plea reaches him.

If the petition is rejected or if the convict does not seek mercy then the government will take steps to execute the convict.

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The same procedure was followed during Jamaat Assistant Secretary General and war criminal Abdul Quader Molla’s execution. But Molla did not appeal for mercy, says the government.

He was hanged on Dec 12, 2013, the very day the Appellate Division rejected his review petition.

Kamaruzzaman had wished to consult his counsels after the prison authorities on Apr 8 asked him whether he wanted to seek clemency.

After meeting him the following day, his lawyers said the senior leader of the Jamaat, the party that colluded with the Pakistan army and actively opposed Bangladesh’s independence in 1971, had sought time to think over the matter.

Two magistrates, Mahbub Jamil and Tanveer Ajim, on Friday morning met Kamaruzzaman in prison to ask him about his decision.

They stayed inside for more than an hour, but did not speak to journalists, waiting outside the jail, after coming out.

The prison authorities also declined comment on their visit.

The speculations over war criminal’s execution dampened, but authorities reignited it by beefing up security in and around the prison on Friday evening.

RAB and police placed a two-layer barricade in front of the jail, which made the rumour go wild in both the news and social media.

Later, when reached for comment, State Minister for Home Affairs Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal indicated no execution was happening on Friday night.

“We’ll see what happens tomorrow,” he had told bdnews24.com on whether Kamaruzzaman would be hanged on Saturday.