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Jamaat-e-Islami Leader’s Appeal Rejected in Bangladesh

Jamaat-e-Islami Leader’s Appeal Rejected in Bangladesh
Jamaat-e-Islami Leader’s Appeal Rejected in Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has rejected a final appeal against a death sentence given to a senior Islamist leader.

Mohammad Kamaruzzaman of the Jamaat-e-Islami party was found guilty of genocide by a domestic war crimes tribunal in May 2013, BBC reported.

A review petition was dismissed on Monday. The attorney general said there was now no reason why he could not be executed.

Kamaruzzaman’s lawyers could decide to seek mercy from the president.

The 62-year-old was convicted of crimes committed during the country’s war of independence from Pakistan in 1971, including a mass killing of at least 120 unarmed farmers in the northern border town of Sohagpur. Three women widowed as a result of the killings testified against Kamaruzzaman during his trial. They described how he led Pakistani troops to the village and helped the soldiers to line up and execute the farmers.

An appeal court in November last year upheld the verdict and a sentence of death by hanging. But Kamaruzzaman’s lawyers made a last-ditch legal appeal, arguing that there were “serious discrepancies” in the testimonies of prosecution witnesses at his trial.

That has now been rejected by the Chief Justice of Bangladesh, S K Sinha.

 

Financialtribune.com