Sagar Biswas :The government has directed Dhaka Central Jail authorities to take full-fledged preparation for the execution of condemned war criminal and senior assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e Islami Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Advocate Anisul Haque on Wednesday said the government already issued directives to the jail authorities in this regard. However, the Minister said, the convict Jamaat leader will get seven days to seek clemency of the President. If he does not seek mercy in the meantime, he will be executed straight away after seven days.Elaborating the legal aspect, the Minister further said, “The convict will get a chance to seek Presidential mercy within seven days after hearing of his verdict delivered by the apex court.” “He can also be executed on the basis of the short order. In this case, the certified copy of the Supreme Court order is needed to implement the verdict,” the Minister said.As a part of the preparation, Kamaruzzaman was brought to Dhaka Central Jail from Kashimpur High Security Jail on Tuesday afternoon, just a day after the apex court upheld his death penalty.Earlier on November 3, the Appellate Division upheld death penalty for him, which was awarded by International Crimes Tribunal [ICT] on May 9, 2013. According to Jail Code, every death-row convict gets a chance to seek Presidential clemency. Usually, after the final verdict [of capital punishment], the Jail Superintendent briefs the convict of the mercy provisions and seeks convict’s decision on the issue. The convict gets seven days to take a decision [about seeking mercy]. In any circumstance, the verdict will have to be executed within 21-28 days. In this backdrop, the jail authority yesterday staged a rehearsal to execute the convict. The selected jail officials along with hangmen joined in the rehearsal.Besides, Anisul Huq and Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General Syed Iftekhar Uddin met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office yesterday afternoon.Earlier, they both held a closed-door meeting over the issue at the law minister’s office.Family meets KamaruzzamanMeanwhile, ten members of his family met Kamaruzzaman at Dhaka Central Jail at about 10:30am yesterday. They spent about half an hour with after the jail authorities allowed them to enter, Senior Jailor Farman Ali said.Of them, his wife Nurunnahar, four sons Hassan Iqbal, Ahmed Hassan , Hassan Imam and Ikram Hassan , daughter Afiya Nur, brothers Najibur Zaman and Abdullah Al Mahdi , sister Mohsina Begum and nephew Abdul Alim were in the team.Kamaruzzaman’s son Hassan Iqbal said it was nothing but a regular meeting. The jail authorities did not ask them to meet his father yesterday. As the issue of ‘mercy’ was raised, Iqbal said, “My father will think of it after the review. It is his personal decision.”Urging countrymen to pray for his father’s soul, Iqbal said, “My father is not a criminal. His hanging is ‘ideological’. He [father] is in normal condition,” Iqbal said.A legal debate has been raised over the filing option of review petition by the condemn convict.When Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, the defence counsel of Kamaruzzaman, said that his client would get a chance to file review petition, the Law Minister categorically ruled out the possibility saying that none will be allowed to file review after final judgement. Khandaker Mahbub, who is also the president of Supreme Court Bar Council, asked the government not to execute the death penalty and wait until the disposal of the review petition.”It will be illegal, if the government executes him before the SC releases its full verdict. As per section 105 of the constitution, there is a scope to file a review petition against the apex court verdict,” the defence counsel said.He said, “We have submitted an application in order to get permission. And the review petition will be filed after getting certified copy of the full verdict of the Supreme Court.”But Law Minister Anisul Haque said, “The apex court had earlier rejected the review petition filed against the death sentence of Quader Mollah. So, there is no scope of review over the verdict.”Echoing the same, Attorney General Mahbube Alam yesterday said that the concerned prison authorities could execute the war criminal [Kamaruzzaman] at any time they want.”No jail code would be barriers to execute the verdict. I cannot agree that jail authorities cannot do anything before getting the full verdict,” he said when asked about getting the full verdict.The AG further said there is no scope of appealing for review petition in the case. “I request all who say about review petition to read the article 47 of the constitution carefully those,” he mentioned.The ICT sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death after it found him guilty of crimes against humanity including genocide, killing, rape, looting, arson, and deportation of people during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.In 1971, Kamruzzaman was the leader of the Islami Chattra Sangha in Mymensingh. He was one of the key organizers of the Al-Badr of greater Mymensingh region and unleashed a region of terror in the nearby localities.
