The Supreme Court (SC) has upheld death sentence for war criminal Jamaat Leader Motiur Rahman Nizami. With the verdict, the government can initiate Niazami’s execution process. The final chance that he can avail is to beg for his life to the president. The SC passed the verdict on Thursday by rejecting appeals by the condemned war criminal to review his death penalty for crimes against humanity during the country`s 1971 War of Independence. A four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha delivered the verdict at 11:30am on Thursday. The other members of the bench are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Hasan Fayez Siddique and Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain. On March 29, Nizami filed the petition mentioning 46 grounds in a 70-page appeal praying to acquit him of all charges on which he was found guilty and awarded the death penalty. For committing crimes in 1971, the SC upheld his death sentences on three charges and life term imprisonment on two other charges on January 6, 2016. Earlier, Nizami was awarded the death penalty by the International Crimes Tribunal-1 on October 29, 2014. He was awarded life imprisonment on four other charges. — risingbd.com
