Amid tight security around the court, capital city and elsewhere in the country, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 in Bangladesh on Wednesday (Oct 29, 2014) gave death penalty to former Jamaat ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami for his crimes against humanity committed during the War of Liberation.
With the 71-year-old Nizami in the dock, tribunal chairman Justice M Enayetur Rahim, flanked by his two colleagues Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Anwarul Haque, pronounced the verdict in the jam-packed courtroom.
“He be hanged by his neck till his death,” said Justice Rahim at about 12:25 pm.
The former president of Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), then student wing of Jamaat, and chief of Al-Badr was found guilty in 8 charges out of the total 16, and the tribunal awarded him death in charge numbers 2, 4, 6 and 16. The tribunal awarded him death for each of the charges.
The tribunal also sentenced him to life in prison for charge numbers 1, 3, 7 and 8. But with the execution of the first death sentence, all other sentences will naturally get merged into it.
In his first verdict as the chairman of the ICT-1, Justice Rahim read out the sentencing portion of the total 204-page verdict, while his two colleagues read out the keynote of the judgement earlier.
Members of police brought Nizami to the courtroom at 11:00am sharp. Wearing white Panjabi and pajama and a brown waistcoat, the Jamaat chief was looking gloomy and hearing the judgement with his eyes closed most of the time.
Ganajagaran Manch welcomed the judgement and expressed happiness demanding quick execution of the verdict.
On the other hand Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, describing it as a conspiracy, declared hartal for Thursday, Sunday and Monday.
Lawyers dealing with the case for Nizami said, they will go for appeal and termed some portions of the verdict as ‘political speech’. –Special Correspondent