Staff Reporter :The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death penalty handed down for Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. The Appellate Division of the apex court upheld the death sentence of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 for one charge but commuted the highest penalty to life term imprisonment for another charge. The SC verdict against the 62-year-old Kamaruzzaman came a day after a tribunal issued death sentence to another Jamaat leader Mir Quasem Ali for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. Jamaat Ameer Maulana Matiur Rahman Nizami was also sentenced to death by another tribunal on Wednesday. A four-member bench, headed by Justice SK Sinha, delivered the yesterday’s judgment by majority decision, dismissing Kamaruzzaman’s appeal. The other members of the bench were Justices MA Wahhab Miah, Hasan Foez Siddique and AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury. The judgment was delivered in the morning in a jam-packed courtroom amid tight security. On May 9 last year, the ICT-2 condemned Kamaruzzaman to death in two charges — for killing 164 civilians at Sohagpur village in Sherpur district and killing Golam Mostafa at Gridda Narayanpur village in the district. The convict appealed against the death sentence on June 6, 2013. Kamaruzzaman is now in a condemned cell at Kashimpur Central Jail.The SC upheld the capital punishment for killing the civilians at Sohagpur by majority view, while it commuted death penalty to life-term jail for killing Golam Mostafa. The 10-year-jail punishment given by the tribunal for inhumanely torturing Syed Abdul Hannan was upheld at the apex court.Meanwhile, Kamaruzzaman was visibly unmoved even after hearing the news of his death verdict on the radio, Kashimpur Jail Superintendent Md Jahangir Kabir told media. He said that a prisoner is allowed to keep a single-band radio even in the condemned cell. He also said that even after hearing of the death sentence, Kamaruzzaman has been eating and going about normally in his prison clothes. There are 104 death row convicts being held in the Gazipur prison, including Jamaat’s another leader ATM Azharul Islam, said the Jail Super.In the immediate reaction, Hasan Iqbal, the eldest son of Kamaruzzaman, said that his father was deprived of justice. He claimed that his father was innocent. No books on history of liberation cited Kamaruzzaman or his role before 2011, relating to Sohagpur massacre. “The allegations brought against my father are false. He is a victim of political vengeance,” Iqbal said. Defense counsels said that they would file a review petition with the Supreme Court seeking acquittal of all the charges in which Kamaruzzamn was found guilty. “The petition will be filed within 30 days after getting the certified copy,” said Advocate Shishir Manir, a counsel of the defense team.Another counsel Tajul Islam said Kamaruzzaman has been denied justice. “We are deeply wounded, but we will continue our legal battle,” he said. He, however, said the death sentence could not be executed without giving the chance for review. He claimed that the defense was eligible to file a review plea against the verdict according to the Constitution. The prosecution, however, expressed satisfaction over the verdict and said there is no provision of review. In his immediate reaction, ICT Chief Prosecutor Ziad Al-Malum said that the tribunal’s verdict has been established again in the Appellate Division. There is no scope to file a review petition against the final verdict, he said. Echoing the same, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said that the government would now decide the date for the execution. “I don’t think there is a scope to file a review. The court also rejected the review petition of Quader Molla. So there is no chance for that anymore,” he said. When asked if Section 105 of the Constitution can provide a provision for the defense to seek a review, Mahbubey said, “The trials are being held under special laws, protected by the Constitution. Section 105 did not apply to Quader Molla, and I will say the same in this case.”On September 17 this year, on conclusion of hearing that went on for 16 days, the Appellate Division kept the appeal of Kamaruzzaman waiting for verdict. The Jamaat leader was arrested on July 13, 2010, at the Supreme Court gate and later shown arrested in the war crimes cases. He was transferred to Kashimpur jail on June 24, 2011.This is the third time the Appellate Division delivered a verdict on an appeal against a tribunal’s judgment. On September 17 this year, the apex court commuted the death sentence of Jamaat Nayebe Ameer Maulana Delwar Hossain Sayedee to imprisonment till death. The SC in 2013 handed down the death penalty to Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah, who was executed on December 12, 2013.Since 2010, the special tribunal has convicted 12 people, mostly senior leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, which had openly campaigned against the independence but denied committing atrocities.
