Journey to justice

Kamaruzzaman was arrested along with his party colleague Abdul Quader Mollah on July 13, 2010 in connection with a criminal case.

The Jamaat-e-Islami leader was shown arrested in a war crimes case on August 2 the same year.

The war crimes prosecution pressed formal charges against the assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami on January 15, 2012 on nine counts of crimes.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 took the charges into cognisance on January 31 the same year.

Kamaruzzaman’s case was transferred to the International Crimes Tribunal-2 on April 16, 2012 for expeditious trial.

On June 4, 2012, the Tribunal-2 indicted Kamaruzzaman on seven charges of crimes against humanity, including murder and torture of unarmed civilians and complicity in other crimes during the Liberation War.

After the resignation of Tribunal-1 chairman Justice Nizamul Huq amid controversy over his alleged Skype conversation with expatriate legal expert Ahmed Ziauddin, Kamaruzzaman sought retrial on January 2, 2013.

The tribunal, however, rejected his petition the following day and continued with the proceedings.

As many as 18 prosecution witnesses, including the investigation officer of the case, testified against the accused; and five people including Kamaruzzaman’s son and elder brother gave testimony in favour of him between July 15, 2012 and March 24, 2013.

Both the prosecution and the defence submitted several documents in support of their stances.

The two sides placed their closing arguments from March 24 to April 16 and the tribunal kept the case waiting for verdict since then.

On May 9, 2013, the Tribunal-2 awarded Kamaruzzaman death penalty on two charges, life sentence on two charges and 10 years' imprisonment on another. He was acquitted of the two other charges.

Kamaruzzaman appealed against the verdict to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on June 6 that year.

The SC on November 3 last year upheld Kamaruzzaman's death penalty on one charge and released its full verdict on February 18 this year.

Kamaruzzaman on March 5 filed a review petition which was rejected by the apex court on April 6. Family members met the condemned war criminal in Dhaka Central Jail the same day.

The Supreme Court on April 8 released its full verdict on the review petition and it was sent to Dhaka Central Jail through Tribunal-2 the same day.

On April 9, five lawyers of Kamaruzzaman met him in jail. He reportedly took time to decide whether he would seek presidential mercy.

On April 10, two magistrates met Kamaruzzaman in jail. The war crimes convict declined to seek clemency.