Bangladesh awaits court order to execute Jamaat leader

Prison authorities in Bangladesh today said they are ready to execute top Jamaat leader Muhammad Quamaruzzaman convicted of war crimes during the 1971 independence war against Pakistan, but are yet to receive a court order in this regard.
"We are yet to receive the (Supreme Court) order in writing to execute him...Before the execution we will have to convey it to the death-row convict and ask if he wants to seek presidential clemency," senior superintendent of high security Dhaka Central Jail Farman Ali told newsmen.
Jail officials preferring anonymity, however, said the hangmen have been kept ready and the execution stage inside the prison has been prepared to execute the convict at any time.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the mass circulation Jugantor newspaper that the apex court is likely to release the full text of the verdict dismissing Quamaruzzaman's petition to review his death sentence.
"They (apex court judges) could have done it on the first day (Monday) when dismissed the petition after hearing...Now it appears they would issue the full text of their order and copy of it would be sent to the prison for carrying out the execution," he said.
The Supreme Court on April 6 rejected Quamaruzzaman's review petition, thwarting his last ditch legal efforts to escape execution.

"If Quamaruzzaman decides not to seek the presidential mercy or if the president rejects his petition for clemency, the government will take steps to execute the convict," Alam said.

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in May 2013 sentenced Quamaruzzaman to death for committing crimes against humanity siding with the Pakistani troops during the 1971 liberation war.
Quamaruzzaman was found him guilty of mass killing, murder, abduction, torture, rape, persecution and abetment of torture in central Mymensingh region. He was convicted for killing 164 people at a village in his home district in northern Sherpur.
The Supreme Court on November 3 last year upheld his death penalty. The apex court, however, issued the full text of the judgement on February 18 and sent it to the ICT, which immediately issued a death warrant.

About three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the liberation.
If the verdict is carried out, Quamaruzzaman will be the second Jamaat leader after Quader Mollah to be executed for the 1971 offences.