‘Govt won’t hesitate to execute Kamaruzzaman’s death penalty’

The government would not hesitate to execute death sentence of war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzaman despite a call by United Nations human rights experts to halt the execution, the law minister has said.
“The highest court of the country has sentenced Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to death for his war crimes, maintaining all legal procedures. We are a sovereign nation, and therefore, the government will do what is needful to implement its verdict,” Anisul Huq told The Daily Star today.
Anisul said Kamaruzzaman will be given seven days for seeking presidential mercy since hearing the verdict, as per relevant rules.
“If he does not seek presidential clemency by that time, the government will take necessary steps for his execution,” the minister said adding the execution can be done on the short verdict of a court.
The law minister expressed hope about getting the short verdict from the SC on Jamaat-e-Islami leader Kamaruzzaman very soon.     
Anisul said he would send the statement of the UN human rights experts to the foreign ministry to find out its authenticity and then will take a decision about it.
In a press release today, UN special rapporteurs on summary executions, Christof Heyns, and on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, said that capital punishment “may be imposed only following a trial that complied with the most stringent guarantees of fair trial and due process.”
On Monday, the apex court upheld the death penalty for Kamaruzzaman, a key organiser of the infamous Al-Badr Bahini responsible for abducting, torturing and killing freedom fighters, intellectuals and pro-liberation people in 1971.