Lawyers meet Kamaruzzaman at Dhaka jail
Lawyers meet Kamaruzzaman at Dhaka jail
Counsels for death row convict Muhammad Kamaruzzaman met the Jamaat-e-Islami leader at Dhaka Central Jail this morning.
Four defence lawyers entered the jail and visited the Jamaat-e-Islami leader. They spent 45 minutes with Kamaruzzaman from 10:15am.
After visiting the Jamaat leader, Shishir told the Daily Star that the jail authorities did not inform his client formally about the Supreme Court verdict. He came to know the judgement from radio at the Kashimpur jail.
The jail authorities are yet to ask Kamaruzzaman whether he will seek president clemency, Shishir added.
The meeting was held a day after the government asked the prison authorities to make preparations for his execution. The apex court on Monday upheld his death penalty for war crimes.
Prior to enter the jail, the defence lawyer told reporters, “I clearly say what the law minister and the attorney said regarding the review petition is totally unlawful and baseless. There is no legal obligation.”
“They even could not produce any provision of law in this regard,” Shishir said adding that It is the constitutional right of Kamaruzzaman to file the petition.
Law Minister Anisul Huq and Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said there is no scope for Kamaruzzaman to file the review petition against the apex court verdict.
Shishir hoped that Kamaruzzaman will get the access of filing the review petition.
Asked whether his client sought president clemency, Shishir said the issue is not important right now as the first thing Kamaruzzaman will have to do is to file the review petition. “If rejected, then we will take decision whether to file the presidential mercy,” he further said.
The 62-year-old was transferred to Dhaka Central Jail from a Kashimpur prison on Tuesday and his family members met him there yesterday.
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.