Kamaruzzaman files review petition

Condemned war criminal Muhammad Kamaruzzaman filed a review petition with the Supreme Court today, the last day of lodging the petition against its verdict that upheld his death penalty for his crimes against humanity in 1971.

In his 45-page petition, Kamaruzzaman prayed to the apex court to scrap his conviction and acquit him of charges, his counsel Shishir Manir told to The Daily Star.

Kamaruzzaman mentioned 44 grounds in the petition on which the SC may consider his prayer for acquittal, the lawyer said. But Manir refused to disclose the grounds as the petition is pending with the court.

The court will now fix a date for hearing the review petition, he added.

The defence filed the review petition a day after holding a meeting with the senior assistant secretary general of Jamaat at Dhaka Central Jail yesterday.

A convicted war criminal can seek review of the verdict on the appeal within 15 days since receiving the certified copy of the judgment or being informed about it, said the SC in its full judgment on two review petitions filed by executed war criminal Quader Mollah.

Kamaruzzaman will decide whether he will seek presidential mercy after consulting his lawyers if his review petition is rejected, his counsels said yesterday quoting the Jamaat leader.

The prison authorities read Kamaruzzaman's death warrant out to him on February 19, the day the International Crimes Tribunal-2 issued the warrant. The SC released the verdict's full text the previous day.

On November 3, last year, the SC upheld the May 9, 2013, death penalty handed down by the ICT-2 for crimes that Kamaruzzaman committed against humanity during the Liberation War.

The 63-year-old Jamaat leader was found guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in greater Mymensingh in 1971.