Yesterday’s Supreme Court verdict that upheld the tribunal’s death penalty did not seem to affect war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, who is now in the condemned cell of the Kashimpur jail in Gazipur.
Md Jahangir Kabir, senior jail super of the Kashimpur jail, told the Dhaka Tribune that the death row convict heard the news on a one-band radio that his family had given him and the authorities had allowed.
“He did not appear to be nervous. He ate and slept as usual. But it is hard to tell what was going on in his mind,” the jail super said.
The war criminal has been in the condemned cell since May last year when a war crimes tribunal handed him death sentence for the crimes he had committed against humanity in 1971.
Arrested in July 2010, Kamaruzzaman had been transferred to the Kashimpur jail in June 2011.
“We will notify him about the Supreme Court verdict after receiving the formal documents,” the jail official said.
Apart from Kamaruzzaman, there are a total of 104 death row convicts in the Gazipur prison.
Kamaruzzaman’s eldest son Hasan Iqbal also confirmed that his father had remained “calm” even after hearing the news.
“Jail sources have told us that he was normal. It could be easily guessed that the court would deliver a verdict of this kind. So, he was mentally prepared,” Iqbal told the Dhaka Tribune over phone.
The family members will visit the war criminal in jail on November 14, he said.