Family meets Nizami at Dhaka jail for last time before his hanging for war crimes

Motiur Rahman Nizami has met his family for the last time at the Dhaka Central Jail as the Jamaat-e-Islami chief is set to hang for his crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

At least 24 family members, including Nizami’s wife, two sons and their wives, were entered the high-security prison a little after they drove in three vehicles at the gate around 7:45pm on Tuesday.

Identities of the others could not be known.

Around 20 minutes later, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told bdnews24.com that an executive order to carry out Nizami’s execution on Tuesday night has been sent to the jail as he had not asked for presidential mercy.

Earlier in the afternoon, Nizami’s lawyer Motiur Rahman Akanda had confirmed bdnews24.com, “Jail authorities have asked (the family) to go there to meet (him). They are on their way.”

Security had been cranked up around the prison on Old Dhaka’s Nazimuddin Road since the afternoon.

The street in front of the jail was barricaded and closed to traffic.

Nizami’s extended family members came out of the prison around 9:30pm but none of them spoke to the journalists gathered outside the jail gate.

After the Supreme Court rejected his plea to review the death sentence on May 5, they had met him at Gazipur’s Kashimpur prison the following day.

The former commander of the notorious Al-Badr, a vigilante militia that assisted the Pakistan Army during Bangladesh’s Liberation War, was brought to the Dhaka jail on Sunday night.

The jail authorities on Tuesday asked the kins to come and see him in prison, a practice for the families of death-row convicts to meet them for one last time before the sentence is carried out.

Prison officials on Monday  read out the final Supreme Court verdict, which rejected Nizami’s petition for a review of the death penalty, to the Jamaat chief to kick off the preparations for his execution.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Nizami to death on Oct 29, 2014 for the atrocities, including rape, murder and killings of intellectuals, he had committed as the Al-Badr commander.

The top appeals court on Jan 6 upheld the maximum penalty after hearing his appeal.

The same bench had dismissed his review petition on May 5.

The full review verdict was released on Monday afternoon.