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Bangladeshi court to deliver verdict on Islamist party chief

Xinhua, May 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

Bangladesh's Supreme Court will deliver its verdict on May 5 the final review petition filed by war criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami, the country's largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami President.

The four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha Tuesday set the date after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and the defence.

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

Nizami, who served as agriculture and industries minister in ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's 2001-2006 cabinet, on March 29 filed an appeal with the apex court against his death sentence for war crimes in 1971.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on January 6 upheld a death penalty for the 73-year-old Motiur Rahman Nizami over war crimes during the country's war of independence 45 years ago.

Bangladesh's International Crimes Tribunal-1 issued Nizami's death warrant on March 16 hours after the country's apex court released its full verdict.

Nizami is among the top Jamaat leaders who have been tried in two war crimes tribunals which Prime Minister Sheikh Hasian's Bangladesh Awami League-led government formed in 2010 to bring the perpetrators of 1971 to book.

Four Jamaat leaders and one opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader have already been executed for war crimes.

Both BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the court as a government "show trial," saying it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations. Endit