Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, the assistant secretary-general of the Jamaat-e-Islami party in Bangladesh on Monday lost his final bid to overturn his death sentence for atrocities committed during the 1971 independence war, clearing the way for his execution.
The Supreme Court upheld its previous verdict on Kamaruzzaman, rejecting his plea for reviewing death penalty.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in May 2013 sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death for committing crimes against humanity siding with the Pakistani troops during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation.
Village of Widows
The third most senior figure in the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Kamaruzzaman could now be hanged within days.
The ICT held him responsible for the so-called “Village of Widows” slaughter. Prosecutors said he presided over the massacre of at least 120 unarmed farmers who were lined up and gunned down in the remote northern village of Sohagpur.
Kamaruzzaman was also found guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in central Bangladesh’s Mymensingh region.
Earlier Verdict
The Supreme Court on November 3, 2014, upheld his death penalty, but issued the full text of its judgment on February 18, sending it to the ICT, which immediately issued a death warrant.
Kamaruzzaman filed a review petition on March 5, exhausting his last legal option to escape the noose.
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