War criminal Kamaruzzaman won’t be hanged tonight

Staff Correspondent: As the copy of the Supreme Court’s order rejecting the review plea is yet to reach to the jail authorities, the death-row war crimes convict Mohammad Kamaruzzaman’s will not be executed tonight (Monday night).

Dhaka Central Jail senior jail super Farman Ali confirmed this to media, this night.

"As till now we did not receive copy of the verdict, so execution of Kamaruzzaman impossible tonight," said Farman Ali.

On the other hand, Supreme Court Registrar Aminul Islam said, “The documents related to the death row Jamaat leader`s review rejection order could not be released as the apex court judges are yet to sign on it.”

Earlier, the prisons authorities asked relatives of Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to meet him at Central Jail by 5:00pm hours after the Supreme Court upheld its previous verdict rejecting his plea for reviewing death penalty.

The authorities informed the family members about the meeting through a letter, Shishir Manir, a counsel for Kamaruzzaman, told risingbd.com

Family members, however, met with Kamaruzzaman, this evening.

Earlier, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) has upheld the death penalty to the war crimes convict Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.

After dismissing the review petition filed by the death-row convict, a four-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the verdict on Monday morning.

On May 9, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal-2 (ICT-2) sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War. The tribunal found him guilty in five charges out of seven.

The full text of the Appellate Division judgment was released on February 18 and the following day the tribunal issued a warrant to execute the death sentence.

risingbd/ DHAKA/ Apr 06, 2015/ Jisan/ Nasim/ Mahfuz