Kamaruzzaman loses final appeal against death sentence
Dhaka: The Supreme Court Appellate Division upheld the death penalty awarded to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman after rejecting the review petition filed by his counsels.
A four-member SC bench headed by chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha delivered the verdict at 9:05am on Monday.
The other members of the bench are Justice Mohammad Abdul Wahhab Mia, Justice Hassan Foyez Siddique, and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury.
Kamaruzzaman’s lawyer Shishir Monir said it has not been known yet whether Kamaruzzaman will seek clemency to the President.
Hearing on the review petition filed by Muhammad Kamaruzzaman was held in a regular bench of the Appellate Division on 5 April.
The Appellate Division Bench fixed 5 April for the review hearing after Kamaruzzaman’s counsels sought an adjournment of the hearing on his review petitions for four weeks, on 1 April.
Kamaruzzaman filed the petition on 5 March seeking to review the death penalty.
On 9 May 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal 2 condemned Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general M Kamaruzzaman to death for his crimes against humanity, including murder, abduction, torture, rape and mass killing during the War of Independence.
On 3 November 2014, the Appellate Division upheld the tribunal’s death sentence by a short order and released its full text of the judgment on 18 February and according to the prescribed rules the review petition was filed. As a result, the execution of Kamaruzzman’s death sentence issued by the trial court remains inoperative.