Mercy plea after filing for review: Defence lawyers
Sunday, 9 November 2014
The defence lawyers of war crimes death row convict Muhammad Kamaruzzaman on Sunday said they would not go for presidential clemency before the review petition. Speaking at an emergency press briefing in the afternoon, they also claimed that Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Anisul Huq misquoted the article in the Constitution over the execution. Meanwhile, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the time limit of 7 days would start after Kamaruzzaman receives the full verdict. Earlier, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence awarded to Jamaat-e-Islami’s Senior Assistant Secretary General Kamaruzzaman by a tribunal dealing with war crimes cases. The apex court’s rejection of Kamaruzzaman’s appeal means that he will now be hanged within months, if the case is not reviewed again or he is granted clemency by the President. On May 10, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 gave capital punishment to the Jamaat leader for his crimes against humanity during country’s independence struggles in 1971, according to a news agency.