DHAKA: The Supreme Court Appellate Division on Monday upheld the death sentence against Jamaat assistant secretary general Muhammad Kamaruzzaman.

A four-member SC bench of the Appellate Division led by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the verdict on an appeal filed by Jamaat leader Muhammad Kamaruzzaman challenging death penalty awarded by ICT-2.

Three other judges of the bench are: Justice M Abdul Wahhab Miah, Justice Hasan Foez Siddique and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury.

Earlier on Sunday, Kamaruzzaman’s appeal was enlisted in Monday’s cause list of the verdict of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

On May 9, 2013, the ICT-2, led-by Justice Obaidul Hassan, awarded capital punishment to the Jamaat assistant secretary general for his crimes against humanity during country’s Liberation War in 1971.

While reading out the summary of the 215-page verdict, tribunal chairman Obaidul Hasan informed the court that five out of all seven allegations brought against Kamaruzzaman were proved beyond doubt.

He was sentenced to death in 3rd and 4th charges—brought for the mass killing in Shohagpur of the Sherpur district and killing of Golam Mostafa.

In the early morning of July 25, 1971, Kamaruzzaman advised members of Al-Badr and Razakar (another auxiliary force) to commit a large scale massacre, in association with Pakistani troops, in Sohagpur village of Nalitabari upazila, Sherpur.

The collaborators murdered 164 unarmed civilians, 44 of whom are named, and raped women.

On August 23, 1971, on Kamaruzzaman’s instruction, collaborators took Golam Mostafa, son of late Asir Uddin of village Gridda Narayanpur in Sherpur, to an Al-Badr camp.

The Jamaat leader and his accomplices brought Mostafa and one Abul Kasem to Serih Bridge and gunned them down.

Kasem survived as he jumped into the river but suffered injuries in his fingers. Mostafa died on the spot.

On June 6, 2013, the war crimes convict submitted appeal to the apex court challenging the verdict of the ICT.

On September 17, the Appellate Division led by Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha kept it waiting for verdict.

BDST: 0925 HRS, NOV 03, 2014