Staff Reporter :The Supreme Court is set to pass its verdict on the review petition of Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, death row convict for his involvement in the 1971 crimes, against his death sentence today (Monday). The four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, announced the date at the end of hearing on the review petition on Sunday. The other members of the bench were Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury. Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, the lead counsel of Kamaruzzaman, pleaded for the acquittal of the convict, the other defence counsel Advocate Shishir Munir said. “We prayed for his acquittal, or else, we requested the court at least to reduce his death sentence to life imprisonment. We hope the court will consider our pleas and we’ll get justice,” he said. Regarding the arguments, he said the defence placed its submission mainly on four points. “We also produced a book as an evidence that we didn’t place before the court. In that book, a female witness gave interview to a foreign writer describing Shohaghpur killing in 1971. In that interview, she never said Mr Kamaruzzaman was involved in the crime, but later she gave testimony against him,” he said. In the hearing, Advocate Mahbub also pleaded that the court handed down death sentence to Kamaruzzaman based on the depositions of three female witnesses. Of them, two were eyewitnesses, but they said they saw Kamaruzzaman only after liberation, the counsel said. So, there statements could not be accepted for capital punishment. Kamaruzzaman, the Joint Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami, was sentenced to death in two charges, but the court reduced one sentence to life imprisonment due to the lack of eyewitnesses. “The court can reduce the other sentence also on the same ground. These two sentences are contrasting. So you may reconsider the verdict,” Mahbub said.On the other hand, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam placed submission for the state in the hearing. Kamaruzzaman, an Al Badr commander of 1971, was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal-2 for his involvement in the crimes against humanity during the liberation war in 1971. But the 63-year-old Jamaat leader appealed against the tribunal’s verdict with the Supreme Court. But the Appellate Division upheld the death sentence by a 3-1 majority decision. The tribunal awarded death penalty to Kamaruzzaman in two charges – mass killing of Shohaghpur and the murder of Golam Mustafa. Appellate Division unanimously reduced Kamaruzzaman’s death penalty to life long imprisonment in the murder charge of Golam Mustafa, but upheld the capital punishment for Shohaghpur killing in the split decision. Only Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah reduced the death sentence for Shohaghpur killing to life long imprisonment. Later, Kamaruzzaman filed a review petition with the same bench on March 5, seeking a reassessment of their judgment, claiming himself innocent.
