Dhaka: The hearing of a review petition filed against the death penalty awarded to Bangladesh`s Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader and war crimes convict Mohammad Kamaruzzaman will start on April 1.
The date was fixed on Monday by a four-member bench led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, bdnews24.com reported. The petition was filed on March 5 by Kamaruzzaman`s lawyers.
Kamaruzzaman, the then acting president of Islami Chhatra Sangha in Mymensingh in 1971, was the "chief organiser" of the Al Badr in the region during the country`s Liberation War.
In May 2013, he was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-2 after it found him guilty in five of the seven charges levelled by the prosecution.
Vigilante militia Al Badr was formed to assist the Pakistan Army to thwart Bangladesh`s freedom struggle, the court observed.
Kamaruzzaman was awarded death on two charges -- the murder of journalist Golam Mostafa and the killing of 120 men and raping of women in Shohaghpur village at Sherpur`s Nalitabari on July 25, 1971.
His death sentence was upheld in November 2014. But the court reduced the death sentence awarded for the murder of Golam Mostafa to life.
The three judges of ICT-2 signed his death warrant on February 19 after the Supreme Court`s full verdict was released.
