Prison preparing for execution

The government yesterday asked the prison authorities to make preparations for Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman's execution, two days after the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty for war crimes.Under the jail code, the convict will get seven days since hearing of the SC verdict to seek presidential mercy. If he opts not to do so, he will be hanged immediately, Law Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star yesterday.

Kamaruzzaman is aware of the judgment, he said.For the execution to be carried out, however, a certified copy of the SC verdict must reach the tribunal that will issue a warrant of death for Kamaruzzaman, he added.“But there is no chance for him being hanged tonight [last night],” he said.Replying to a question, the minister said the convict could be executed on the basis of the short order that the SC delivered on Monday.

On presidential clemency, Anisul said, “Kamaruzzaman has to confess his guilt and apologise for his offence to seek presidential mercy.”The developments come amid debates over Kamaruzzaman's right to seek a review of the apex court verdict.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.Talking to The Daily Star yesterday, the law minister skirted the question whether Kamaruzzaman could file a review appeal.But Attorney General Mahbubey Alam asserted that a war crimes convict had no such right, though the defence insisted they would move a review petition.“It will be illegal if Kamaruzzaman is executed before the Supreme Court disposes of his review plea,” said Khandker Mahbub Hossain, a senior defence lawyer. Shishir Manir, another defence counsel, said they submitted an application to the prison authorities yesterday for allowing them to meet Kamaruzzaman for his instructions on the review petition.

The prison authorities fixed 10:00am today for the meeting.At a press briefing at his Gulshan residence in the evening, the law minister said the apex court had rejected the review appeal of Abdul Quader Mollah, who was hanged on December 12 last year for war crimes.“It [the appeal] is hereby dismissed,” he quoted the short SC order on the review petition.The minister added, “In this context, it seems to us that there is no opportunity for filing a review petition before the full judgment is released.”But it is a different matter altogether if the SC verdict says otherwise (on Quader Mollah's review petition), Anisul said, without explaining what he meant by “otherwise” and “a different matter”.The apex court is yet to release its full judgment on Quader Mollah's review petition. Once released, it will be clear if war crimes convicts can file for reviews.On international communities' concern over death sentence, the minister said, “We will not compromise on the matter of capital punishment for war criminals.”

The attorney general said Kamaruzzaman's execution was just a matter of time, and it depended on the government.There is no law that says the jail authorities have to get the full judgment to execute a convict, he added.Earlier in the day, the AG told reporters at his office, “I do not agree that the prison authorities cannot do anything before getting the full verdict.”Quader Mollah was hanged 82 days after the SC sentenced him to death.

Meanwhile, Kamaruzzaman's lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain told a press conference at the Supreme Court Bar Association that he hoped the government would not execute his client until the disposal of his review petition.He said Kamaruzzaman would file for a review upon getting the certified copy of the full verdict.One judge of the four-member SC bench disagreed with the capital punishment order on charges of mass killing at Sohagpur village in Sherpur. Kamaruzzaman may get justice on this dissenting point, he added.According to him, the war crimes tribunals have tried the cases in such a manner that they have become controversial at home and abroad.

 

FAMILY MEMBERS MEET KAMARUZZAMAN

Family members met Kamaruzzaman at Dhaka Central Jail yesterday morning.“His physical condition is good and he is not worried about the verdict...I have not seen a strong person like him,” Hasan Iqbal, eldest son of Kamaruzzaman, told The Daily Star after the meeting.Kamaruzzaman's wife Nurunnahar, sons Hasan Ahmed, Hasan Ikram and Hasan Imam, daughter Atia Nur, brothers Naziruzzaman and Abdullah Al Mahadi, sister Mohsina Begum, and nephew Abdul Alim also met him.Asked if Kamaruzzaman would seek presidential mercy, Iqbal said, “He will make the decision after the disposal of the review petition, which will be submitted after receiving the full verdict.”

Defence lawyer Shishir Manir said, “The jail authorities did not call the family members. They went to see him on their own.”Normally, the prison authorities call family members before executing a convict.