The death warrant issued for Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami was read out to him at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur yesterday.
The jail authorities read out the warrant around 10am, soon after it reached the jail, Prahsanta Kumar Banik, superintendent of Kashimpur Jail (part 2), told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said: “After hearing the warrant, Nizami said that he will file a review petition after consulting the matter with his lawyers.”
Nizami has got 15 days from the publication of the full verdict to file the review petition. If it is rejected, he would get the chance to seek the presidential mercy. If the convict does not seek clemency or it is rejected, the government will execute the death sentence as per the tribunal order.
On Tuesday, the Dhaka Central Jail authorities received the death warrant around 10pm, soon after the International Crimes Tribunal issued it.
The apex court the same day released the 153-page judgement after its four judges concerned signed the verdict that upheld the Jamaat chief’s death penalty for war crimes.
Tribunal Registrar Shahidul Alam Jhinuk said that copies of the death warrant were sent to the Dhaka Central Jail authorities, the Dhaka district magistrate, Home Ministry and Law Ministry.
Nizami was given death sentence on October 29, 2014 on four charges and life imprisonment on four other charges. He challenged the verdict at the apex court. On January 6, the Appellate Division upheld the tribunal’s sentence for the al-Badr chief for masterminding the killing of intellectuals and his involvement in two incidents of mass killing of over 500 people in Pabna in 1971.
He is the third former minister after Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury to get death penalty for his notorious role during the war.