Family meets death row war criminal Nizami in jail

Family members met condemned war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami in Kashimpur jail in Gazipur yesterday.

Six members of the family -- Nizami's wife Begum Shamsunnahar Nizami, his daughter, two sons and their wives -- were allowed to meet Nizami for 40 minutes in the jail, said Nasir Ahmed, jailer of Kashimpur Jail-2. They entered the jail around 11:30am.

The meeting took place a day after the Supreme Court dismissed the Jamaat-e-Islami chief's petition for reviewing its verdict that upheld his death penalty awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal-1 in 2014.

On March 29, Nizami filed the petition seeking acquittal.

The ICT on March 15 issued a death warrant for Nizami hours after the SC released its full verdict upholding his death penalty.

In October 2014, the war criminal was convicted by the tribunal of the atrocities he had committed during the 1971 Liberation War.

Nizami was the president of Jamaat's student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha from 1966 to September 1971 and ex-officio chief of Al-Badr.

He masterminded the formation of the militia that unleashed terror on peace-loving Bangalees, killed unarmed civilians, raped women and destroyed properties during the 1971 war.

Towards the end of the war, the Al-Badr Bahini committed “crimes of serious gravity intending to demean the human civilisation", said the Tribunal-1 in its 2014 verdict.

The review petition was the last legal battle for the war criminal. Now, Nizami will have the chance to seek presidential clemency.

Former minister Nizami was also sentenced to death in the sensational 10-truck arms haul case.