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Published : 06 Apr 2015, 04:30 PM
The Jamaat-e-Islami leader’s son Hasan Iqbal said they had received a letter from jail authorities.
“We’ve been told that we can meet him at 5pm on Monday,” he told bdnews24.com. “We’ll go to Dhaka Central Jail by then.”
Kamaruzzaman, sentenced to death for war crimes during Bangladesh’s Liberation War, can now seek presidential mercy before his sentence is executed.
His lawyers sought permission to meet him to discuss the matter, but jail authorities rejected it.
“They’ve sent a letter to his family asking them to meet him instead,” his lawyer Shishir Monir told bdnews24.com.
Senior Jail Superintendent Farman Ali said in such cases, only family members were allowed to meet the convict.
“We rejected their (lawyers’) application as there’s no provision for them to meet [the convict] for discussion,” he explained.
The top court had described Kamaruzzaman’s war crimes “worse than the Nazis” and upheld the death sentence awarded by a special tribunal in 2013.
He later sought the review of the sentence, which was scrapped by the chief justice-led bench on Monday.
After the verdict, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said Kamaruzzaman could seek presidential clemency and meet family members and only after that, the verdict would be executed.
It depends on the president whether or not he will show mercy to the war criminal.
If Kamaruzzaman chooses not to seek presidential clemency, the government will move to execute the death sentence.
Otherwise, the execution will have to wait for the outcome of the mercy petition.
Preparations complete, security tightened
Two long bamboo poles, tarpaulin and two sacks of sand were taken to the jail in the afternoon.
A senior jail official said they would cover the area where Kamaruzzaman would be hanged with the bamboo and tarpaulin.
“We did the same during Quader Molla’s hanging to prevent people from witnessing the execution from nearby high-rises,” added the official, who declined to be named.
Sacks of sand would be used to examine whether the noose can withstand Kamaruzzaman’s weight.
But jail Superintendent Ali declined to comment, saying they were ready to execute the government’s decision.
Security has been ratcheted up around the jail with RAB personnel patrolling the area.
A RAB member, identifying himself as ‘Ismail’, said they had been ordered to tighten security.
Chawkbazar Police Station OC Azizul Haq told bdnews24.com, “Security has been heightened since the review petition was scrapped to ensure that no unpleasant incident happens.”
