Staff Reporter :Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman filed a petition seeking review of Supreme Court judgement upholding death sentence awarded by trial court for his crimes against humanity during liberation war in 1971. The lawyers of Kamaruzzaman, on his behalf, filed the petition with the department concerned of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday.The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) issued death warrant against Kamaruzzaman on February 19, just a day after the release of the full text of the Appellate Division’s verdict. The court will fix the date to hear the review petition on March 8. The chamber judge of the Supreme Court Justice Hasan Foez Siddique took the decision following a prayer from the state. The defence submitted a 45-page review petition along with 704-page documents. In the petition, the defence sought the acquittal for the Jamaat leader on 44 grounds, senior defence counsel Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, also the President of Supreme Court Bar Association, said. “One judge of the Appellate Division held a different view with the other three judges in the appeal hearing. We’ll place arguments on his points in the review hearing,” he said at a news briefing at the Supreme Court auditorium after filing the review petition. Mahbub also expected that the Appellate Division would thoroughly assess the deposition of the witnesses in the review hearing. “We hope that the apex court will not be in hurry and take its time to dispose of the appeal petition considering the present political condition,” he said. He also raised question on the legitimacy of the inclusion of three witnesses for the prosecution after the submission of formal charge against the Jamaat leader during the trial at the tribunal. The other two lawyers of Kamaruzzaman Advocate Tajul Islam and Advocate Shishir Munir were also present at the news briefing. Later, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the process of the execution of Kamaruzzaman has temporarily been suspended with the submission review petition against his death sentence. The next course of action will be decided his after the disposal of the review petition, he said.
