Last chance for filing tomorrow for Kamaruzzam

Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, assistant secretary general of Jamaat-e-Islami, must file a petition with the Supreme Court by tomorrow if he wants a review of his death penalty upheld by the same court for committing crimes against humanity in 1971. 

If he does not submit the petition by tomorrow, he will loss the right to seek a review, and the government can fix a date for executing him, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star yesterday.

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

The International Crimes Tribunal-2 sentenced Kamaruzzaman to death on May 9, 2013.  After upholding the penalty on November 3, 2014, the SC released the full text of the verdict on February 18. ICT-2 issued the death warrant on February 19 and the jail authorities read the warrant before Kamaruzzaman on the same day that means 15 days of the review petition will be finished tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Kamaruzzaman's counsel Shishir Manir told The Daily Star that he and four other defence lawyers will meet him in Dhaka Central Jail this morning to get final instruction from him about filing the review petition.

He said they have already prepared the draft of the review petition which will be filed today or tomorrow if their client wants.