Kamaruzzaman files review petition seeking stay on his execution.
Death row war crimes convict Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman on Thursday filed a petition with the Appellate Division seeking review of the Supreme Court verdict that had upheld his death sentence for war crimes he had committed during the liberation war in 1971. In his petition, Kamaruzzaman also prayed for suspension of his execution warrant issued by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 on February 19, until the Appellate Division disposes of the review petition. Attorney general Mahbubey Alam said that the government also filed a petition seeking a speedy disposal of the review petition. Kamaruzzaman also sought his acquittal showing 44 reasons in his review petition. The ICT-2 had issued the warrant of execution for Kamaruzzaman after receiving the copy of the Appellate Division’s full verdict on February 18 while the dissenting judge, Justice Wahhab Miah had reduced Kamaruzaman’s sentence to life term.
The majority verdict echoed the trial court findings that Kamaruzzaman had formed the Al-Badr force in greater Mymensingh and participated and assisted in mass killing of the male population of Sohagpur and raped the widows. The verdict termed the crimes as ‘inhuman’ and ‘gruesome’. The dissenting judge said Kamaruzzaman was an Al-Badar Bahini member and did not have any advisory role or control over the Al-Badars in contemplating and taking steps in the commission of ‘large scale massacre’ by raiding Sohagpur on July 25,1971 as the prosecution had alleged. On November 3, 2014, three out of four judges of the apex court bench in a short order upheld the May 9, 2013 ICT-2 verdict that had handed death sentence to Kamaruzzaman finding him guilty of orchestrating and participating in atrocities at Sohagpur village, making it a ‘village of widows’ on July 25, 1971 when 120 people were killed and many women were raped.
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