Bangladesh war crime convict to challenge death sentence

A top leader of Bangladesh's fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami party has decided to file a review petition against his death sentence for war crimes during the country's independence war in 1971, as authorities here began the countdown for his execution.
Prison officials said Mohammad Quamaruzzaman's lawyers met him at the Dhaka Central Jail after a special tribunal on Thursday issued death warrants against him.
Quamaruzzaman's chief counsel Tajul Islam told reporters his client decided to seek the review.
"We have discussed with him about the written judgment, review petition and the subsequent legal steps...We will file the review petition in due time and if justice is done he (Quamaruzzaman) will definitely be acquitted," Islam told newsmen.

Meanwhile, Jail officials said the preparations for Quamaruzzaman's execution would continue so that the procedure could be completed immediately if his review petition was rejected.
The Supreme Court on November 3 last year upheld the International Crimes Tribunal's verdict sentencing Quamaruzzaman to death for killing 120 people at the Sohagpur village in 1971.

The apex court issued the full text of the judgment on Wednesday after which the special tribunal issued death warrants to Quamaruzzaman, clearing the way for his execution.
Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Quamaruzzaman had the option to file a review petition within 15 days from the publication of the full verdict.

Since Bangladesh launched the war crimes trial, the two special tribunals, set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's secular government in 2010, have handed down death penalties to 13 people.
Only one of them, Jamaat's joint secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah so far has been executed to far.
About three million people were killed by the Pakistani army and their Bengali-speaking collaborators during the liberation war when Jamaat was opposed to Bangladesh's independence siding with the Pakistani junta.
Yesterday another top leader of Jamaat was sentenced to death for war crimes, triggering violence outside the court premises.