‘Hangman’ enters jail as Nizami execution looks imminent

An inmate of Kashimpur Central Jail was brought to Dhaka Central Jail on Tuesday as he is likely to be the main hangman for condemned war criminal Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami. Law enforcers entered the jail along with hangman Mohammad Raju around 3pm, jail sources said. According to them, Nizami’s family members might be asked to meet him for the last time today after getting the government’s order to execute the Appellate Division verdict rejecting the review petition of the Jamaat Ameer. Meanwhile, police and members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) were deployed in the jail area as part of the beefed security measures. Besides, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan on Tuesday said the verdict against condemned war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami will be executed anytime if the Jamaat ameer does not seek presidential clemency. On May 5, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court rejected the petition of Nizami seeking review of its earlier verdict upholding the death penalty awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal. The full text of the verdict was released on Monday last. Later, it was read out to the Jamaat chief at Dhaka Central Jail. On March 15, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty. On January 6, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the Chief Justice, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer. The Appellate Division upheld the ICT-1 order sentencing Nizami to death for wartime crimes, including genocide and murder of intellectuals. The apex court upheld his death penalty on three of the four counts of charges while he was acquitted on the rest one. On October 29, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War. The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit. Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on November 23, 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges. — Dhaka, May 10 (UNB)