Family asked to meet Kamaruzzaman

Hours after the Supreme Court ruling upholding its death penalty for Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman for 1971 war crimes, the prisons authorities asked his family to meet him at Dhaka Central Jail by 5:00pm today.
A three-member prisons delegation delivered a letter in this regard to his house at Mirpur in the capital, Dhaka around 3:00pm, Shishir Manir, a counsel for Kamaruzzaman, told The Daily Star.
Counsels of the condemned Jamaat secretary general sought permission to meet Kamaruzzaman at 4:00pm today at the jail. But the jail authorities declined to let them meet him.
The Jamaat leader has exhausted all the means to stop his execution but for no avail. His last resort could be a presidential mercy. But he has not sought it till filing of this report at 4:30pm.
If the verdict is carried out, he will be the second Jamaat leader after Quader Mollah to be executed for the 1971 offences.
Since the SC ruling came earlier today, people from different walks of life were discussing over social media platforms whether Kamaruzzaman would be executed today.
The SC rejected an appeal of Kamaruzzaman seeking review of its verdict that upheld his death penalty for crimes against humanity committed during Bangladesh’s war of independence in 1971.
International Crimes Tribunal-2, where the trial of Kamaruzzaman was held, issued the death warrant on February 19.
On May 9, 2013, the Tribunal-2 found Kamaruzzaman guilty in five of the seven charges pressed against him and sentenced him to death in two charges, life term in two and 10 years’ imprisonment in another.
Kamaruzzaman appealed to the apex court on June 6, 2013, and the SC upheld the tribunal verdict on November 3, 2014, but commuted one death sentence to life term imprisonment.
The Jamaat leader filed the petition seeking review of the SC decision on March 5.