Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.
Jamaat-e-Islami leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman on Thursday challenged the death penalty awarded him by a war crimes tribunal for his crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
Claiming himself innocent, the assistant secretary general of Jamaat termed the verdict a “wrong judgement” and appealed with Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for his acquittal from all the five charges which were proved before International Crimes Tribunal-2.
The tribunal on May 9 sentenced him to death as it found him guilty of committing crimes against humanity in 1971.
Kamaruzzaman’s lawyers led by advocate Tajul Islam submitted a 105-page appeal along with different other documents to the office concerned of the Appellate Division.
In the appeal, the Jamaat leader said the tribunal sentenced him to death on the basis of hearsay statements of the prosecution witnesses.
The judgement is not tenable in the eye of law because it is wrong judgement, the appeal said.
Tajul Islam, the convict’s lawyer, told The Daily Star that the SC will now fix a date for hearing on the appeal.
MK Rahman, additional attorney general and also chief coordinator of the prosecution team on Wednesday told The Daily Star that the government would not file any appeal challenging the acquittal order of the tribunal in two other charges brought against Kamaruzzaman.
They will oppose Kamaruzzaman’s appeal before the SC, Rahman said.
Source: The Daily Star
