[Bangla New Age] The Appellate Division on Wednesday upheld the death sentence of Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them...
for planning the killings of intellectuals in Dhaka and mass killings at two places in Pabna during the War of Independence.
A four-judge bench chaired by Chief Justice SK Sinha, delivered the unanimous verdict at about 9.10AM amid pin drop silence the courtroom.
The bench included, Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
Later, Nizami's counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain told news hounds that no decision was taken as yet whether a petition would be filed seeking review of the verdict.
It depends on the client, he said, adding, if Nizami asks a review petition would be filed.
But Nizami might as well not seek a review of the apex court verdict as no previous petitioner got any benefit from their review petitions.
Khandker Mahbub also said his client did not deserve death sentence as an abettor as none of the principal accused in Pakistain army were tried.
Nizami would get the opportunity to seek a review of the verdict, attorney general Mahbubey Alam told news hounds.
On October 29, 2014, the International Crime Tribunal-1 sentenced Nizami to death on four counts of war crimes.
The apex court upheld Nizami's death sentences on three charges which include planning intellectuals' killings and two charges of mass killings at two places in Pabna, his home district.