War criminal Motiur Rahman Nizami has filed a petition seeking review of the Appellate Division verdict that upheld his death sentence.
In a press conference, Nizami's chief counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said they filed the 70-page review petition seeking acquittal of the Jamaat-e-Islami chief on 46 grounds.
The death penalty of Jamaat-e-Islami chief Nizami, one of the top collaborators of the Pakistani occupation forces in 1971, was upheld by the apex court on January 6 on charges of masterminding the killing of intellectuals and for his involvement in two incidents of mass murders of over 500 people in Pabna in 1971.
The court published the full text of the verdict on March 15, and the same day the International Crimes Tribunal issued the death warrant for Nizami.
According to the rules, the convict gets 15 days from receiving a copy of the full verdict to filing the review petition.
If the petition is rejected, the war criminal would be able to seek the president's mercy admitting his crimes, or the jail authorities would execute the convict as per the tribunal's verdict.
A former minister during the 2001-06 tenure, Nizami has never repented for the cold-blooded atrocities Jamaat and Islami Chhatra Sangha had committed during the Liberation War.
