SC upholds Nizami death penalty

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the review petition filed by Jamaat-e-Islami ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami against his death sentence for crimes against humanity during the 1971 liberation war.

The four-member bench of the Appellate Division led by chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order.

Earlier on Tuesday, the SC fixed 5 May for the final hearing of the case.

The security around Supreme Court area as well as in the capital was beefed up before the hearing of the case.

On 15 March, the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh issued death warrant for Nizami for crimes against humanity in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty.

On 6 January, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the chief justice, upheld the death sentence for the Jamaat ameer.

The Appellate Division upheld the ICT,B order sentencing Nizami to death.

The apex court upheld his death penalty on three of the four counts of charges while he was acquitted on the rest one.

The SC upheld his life term imprisonment on two charges, out of four in connection with the arrest, detention, torture, and murder of three people, including headmaster Maulana Kasim Uddin of Pabna Zila School on 4 June 1971, complicity in torture, murder and rape at Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute in Dhaka, and murder of Badi, Rumi Jewel and Azad at Old MP Hostel in Dhaka on 30 August 1971.

The Appellate Division acquitted the Jamaat leader of two other charges.

On 29 October 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the liberation war.

The local tribunal sentenced Nizami the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit.

Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on 23 November 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges.