‘Kamaruzzaman’s death sentence execution on SC verdict release’
Convicted war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzaman’s death sentence will be carried out on the release of the Supreme Court verdict, the law minister has said.
A copy of the SC judgment which may be short or full is needed for executing the death sentence, Anisul Huq told The Daily Star this evening.
After getting the certified copy of the SC judgment, International Crimes Tribunal-2 will issue a death warrant against Kamaruzzaman and then the jail authorities will carry out the sentence, the minister added.
Earlier in the day, Anisul told the media that the sentence will be executed if he does not seek presidential mercy in seven days since hearing the SC verdict that has upheld his death penalty on November 3.
“According to section 991 of the Jail Code, it is constitutionally obligatory that a condemned convict gets seven days to seek presidential mercy after he is informed about the verdict. And the time for seeking clemency (for Kamaruzzaman) is not over yet,” Huq said while talking to reporters after emerging from a programme at Supreme Court auditorium.
Earlier on Wednesday, the minister told newsmen that if the Jamaat-e-Islami leader opts not to seek mercy in seven days after hearing the SC verdict, he would be hanged immediately.
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death penalty for Kamaruzzaman for committing crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
Asked about the full text of the SC verdict, which has yet to reach Dhaka Central Jail where the death row convict has been kept now, the minister said: “There is nothing in Section 991 of the Jail Code that a condemned convict has to be informed about the verdict formally.”
“We have to take steps based on the short verdict in this regard,” he added.
“Soon after the verdict was announced, prison officials informed him (Kamaruzzaman) the judgement of the Appellate Division Court that upheld his death penalty,” the minister said.
As reporters asked whether Kamaruzzaman will be hanged as the deadline is ending tomorrow, the minister said, “I don’t know”.
Now an assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, he was a key organiser of the infamous Al-Badr Bahini responsible for abducting, torturing and killing freedom fighters, intellectuals and pro-liberation people during the 1971 Liberation War.
In May last year, a war crimes tribunal sentenced him to death for war crimes.
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