Execution hangs in the balance

Prison authorities are all set to implement the death sentence to war criminal Kamaruzzaman as the law minister yesterday directed the inspector general of prisons to make necessary preparation in this regard.

But as the Dhaka Central Jail office did not get a copy of the Supreme Court verdict, they could not tell, as of early last night, when the capital punishment awarded by the apex court on Monday may be implemented.

“We will have to complete the required procedures after getting copy of the Supreme Court verdict,” Forman Ali, senior superintendent of the Dhaka Central Jail, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday evening.

Around the same time, Law Minister Anisul Huq briefed reporters at his residence on the same matter. The minister said he had directed the IG prisons to make preparation to implement the death sentence of the notorious war criminal.

“I do not know when we will get the copy of the supreme Court verdict,” he said.

Under the country’s law, the highest punishment for an offender is death. Anisul said: “The government will not compromise in the case of war criminals even if any country or organisation asks it not to do so.”

The same old debate took place between the state counsels and the defence counsels even yesterday about the scope of reviewing the Supreme Court verdict.

Prison authorities transferred Kamaruzzaman, a top Jamaat-e-Islami leader, from Kashimpur jail to the Dhaka Central Jail on Tuesday, and yesterday morning 10 members of his extended families including wife, sons, daughter and brother visited him in jail.

Following these developments, a rumour spread quickly around the country that Kamaruzzaman was going to be executed by last night. Many people across the country contacted the Dhaka Tribune office to confirm the time of execution.

Authorities concerned could not proceed futher regarding the execution until the Supreme Court releases either copy of the full judgement or the short order which will be sent to to the International Crimes Tribunal 2 which gave the first verdict.

The tribunal will issue a death warrant for Kamaruzzaman and send the copy of the verdict and the warrant to the central jail.

It is not possible for anyone to predict or say when the four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will release either the short order or the full judgement.

“Kamaruzzaman has to confess his guilt and seek presidential mercy within seven days after hearing his death verdict. Otherwise, the sentence will be executed any time after the seven-day period,” Anisul said.

Replying to a question, he said: “The Appellate Division has upheld the tribunal verdict and I have asked the prison authorities to make preparations considering the review petition has been dismissed.

“The issue of full verdict has not been written anywhere [in law]. So, it [execution] could be done on receiving the short order,” the minister added.

Asked if Kamaruzzaman was informed of the verdict, he said: “So far as I have heard, he has been informed that the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence. But I am not sure if he was informed formally. I did not ask the IG prisons about that.”

Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam at a press conference held in his office yesterday afternoon said jail authorities did not need the copy of the full verdict to execute Kamaruzzaman.

“The tribunal has given its verdict and the Appellative Division upheld it. According to my opinion, they only need the part which contains the death penalty order.”

Talking about the previous Appellate Division verdicts, he said: “What was done in the previous case is not a big factor, one has to see what is written in the law. The copy of the full verdict is not required even to seek clemency.

“He [Kamaruzzaman] has to accept all his crimes and then seek clemency.”

He reiterated that there was no scope of filling a review petition against the judgement.

However, defence counsel Khandakar Mahbub Hossain claimed that Kamaruzzaman could not be executed before getting the full copy of the apex court verdict.

Addressing a press conference at the Supreme Court, he said: “The jail authorities must have the copy of the full verdict of the Appellate Division to execute Kamaruzzaman. Otherwise, the execution will be illegal.”

Also an adviser to the BNP chief, Mahbub said: “We have submitted a review application in order to get justice. We will file the review petition after getting the full copy of the verdict.”

Asked about preparation of hanging Kamaruzzaman, IG Prisons Brig Gen Syed Iftekhar Uddin said: “We always have preparations. We are prepared.”

Asked if they had informed Kamaruzzaman about the death sentence, he said: “We are yet to receive any official order of the government. So, we cannot inform him about it.”

However, a Dhaka jail official said they were prepared to hang any death row convict within two hours of getting the notification. They will just intensify security inside and outside the prison when the war criminal would be hanged.

Yesterday morning, family members of the war criminal turned up at the jail gate to meet him. They were given 30 minutes to spend with Kamaruzzaman from 10:38am.

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 met the death row convict.

While leaving the place, Hassan Imam told reporters that his father was normal. “He is not worried about the verdict…I have not seen such a strong person like him.”

He said the jail authorities did not ask them to see his father. It was a regular meeting.

Asked if the convict would seek presidential mercy, Hassan said: “Father will think about it after filing a review petition. It is his personal decision.”

Meanwhile, the IG prisons said lawyers of Kamaruzzaman lodged an application seeking permission to consult him today. “Five lawyers will meet him in prison tomorrow [today] any time,” Iftekhar said.