Roundup: President's clemency only option for Bangladeshi Islamist party chief to stall imminent execution

Bangladesh's apex court has upheld its previous verdict on Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer (president) Motiur Rahman Nizami for crimes against humanity during the country's war of independence in 1971, meaning that the country's largest Islamist party chief now only has the option of seeking the president's mercy to stall his imminent execution.

A four-member Appellate Division bench of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, on Thursday morning dismissed the final review petition of Nizami, who served as agriculture and industries minister in ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's 2001-2006 cabinet.

The Appellate Division bench read the verdict at about 11:30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT) at a jam-packed court room in the presence of a huge crowd of people particularly journalists and lawyers amid tight security.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told journalists shortly after the apex court ruling that there was no legal bar to execute condemned killer unless he sought presidential pardon.

He said the Appellate Division dismissed the final review petition of condemned war crimes convict Nizami, who is now behind the bar.

As per procedure, Alam said death-row war criminal would be asked whether he would seek presidential clemency.

Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, principal counsel for the Islamist party leader, told journalists that they would seek a chance to authorities of the Dhaka Central Jail, where Nizami has been kept to keep their client.

The Islamist party leader filed final review petition with the Supreme Court on March 29 against its verdicts that upheld their death sentences.

Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Jan. 6 upheld a death penalty for the 74-year-old Motiur Rahman Nizami over war crimes during the country's war of independence 45 years ago.

Nizami was indicted in 2012 with 16 charges of crimes against humanity, including looting, mass killings, arson, rape and forcefully converting people to Muslims during the 1971 war.

The indictment order said Nizami was a key organizer of the Al-Badr, an auxiliary force of then Pakistani army which planned and executed the killing of Bangalee intellectuals at the end of the war.

Earlier, a Bangladesh court had sentenced Nizami, who is Jamaat chief since November 2000, to death in a sensational 10-truck arms haul case.

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.

Cross-section of people including members and activists of Hasina's Bangladesh Awami League and its front organizations have expressed their satisfaction over the verdict.

Also activists of Bangladesh Gonojagoron Mancha (people's resurgence platform) brought out a jubilant procession in the city on Thursday following the verdict of capital punishment to Nizami.

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.

Also on Thursday Jamaat again pleaded Nizami's innocence and claimed that he had no links with war crimes in 1971.

Jamaat called a non-stop 48-hour national strike after the country's apex court Thursday morning upheld its previous verdict on its leader.

In a statement Jamaat Acting Ameer Mokbul Ahmed and Acting Secretary General Shafiqur Rahman called the nationwide hartal for May 8 and 9, protesting what they referred to as "the government hatching conspiracy to kill the party chief Nizami."

"Nizami was deprived of justice," said the statement. Endit