DHAKA: Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh has called countrywide 24-hour hartal from Sunday morning, protesting the Supreme Court verdict that upheld death penalty for their party leader Motiur Rahman Nizami.

The hartal will begin at 6am, according to a press release issued soon after the verdict on Thursday (May 5).
 

Earlier in the day, the Supreme Court upheld its previous verdict on convicted war criminal Nizami, rejecting his plea for reviewing death penalty.

SC bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha passed the order on Thursday.

On March 29, Barrister Najib Momen, son of Nizami, submitted a 70-page review petition with the Appellate Division.

The review petition sought release of the convict from the war crimes case mentioning 46 grounds, Barrister Najib told reporters.

On March 15, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty.

On January 6, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat Ameer for his crimes against humanity during the war.

The Supreme Court upheld the ICT-1 order sentencing Nizami to death for the wartime crimes, including genocide and murder of intellectuals.

On October 29, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.

The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaat-e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit.

Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on November 23, 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges.

BDST: 1343 HRS, MAY 05, 2016
SAS/AKA/SMS