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Bangladesh Islamist party chief intends to seek review of death penalty

Xinhua, March 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh's largest Islamist party chief Motiur Rahman Nizami Wednesday said he will file a review petition with the Supreme Court against its verdict that upheld his death sentence for war crimes in 1971.

Nizami, president of the Bangladeshi Jamaat-e-Islami party, expressed his interest to file a review petition in consultation with his lawyers as his death warrant was read out to him on Wednesday morning in a prison in Kashimpur on the outskirts of capital Dhaka where he is being kept condemned, the prison's Superintendent Prashant Kumar Banik told journalists.

Also on Wednesday Nizami was allowed to meet his lawyers and a son, he said.

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal-1 issued Nizami's death warrant Tuesday night hours after the country's apex court released its full verdict in this connection.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Jan. 6 upheld a death penalty for the 73-year-old Motiur Rahman Nizami over war crimes during the country's war of independence 44 years ago.

Nizami served as agriculture and industries minister in Khaleda Zia's 2001-2006 cabinet.

The apex court upheld capital penalty for the Islamist party chief on three charges and life imprisonment on two charges.

On Oct. 29, 2014, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-1) handed down capital punishment to Nizami for war crimes which include mass killings of intellectuals.

According to the rules, Nizami has an opportunity to file a review petition against the verdict within 15 days.

If his review petition is rejected, the last option for him will be to seek presidential mercy.

Nizami was indicted in 2012 with 16 charges of crimes during the 1971 war. Endit