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BANGLADESH: MATIUR RAHMAN NIZAMI HANGED
May 10, 2016: Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami chief Matiur Rahman Nizami was hanged inside the Dhaka Central Jail after he was found guilty of genocide by International Crimes Tribunal. Nizami, 73, was convicted of crimes including the killing of over 450 people alone in his own village at Santhia in Pabna during the War of Liberation in 1971.
He had refused to seek clemency from President Md Abdul Hamid after rejection of his review petition against his death sentence by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.
Nizami was the most senior figure in Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamist party.
Execution of the his death sentence was carried out by hanging a rope around his neck just after Tuesday midnight. After confirmation of death by the civil surgeon, the body of the convict was formally handed over to their family members for burial in his village home at Manmathpur in Pabna district.
Dhaka District Civil Surgeon Dr Abdul Malek Mridha was present inside the jail along with Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Salahuddin and senior other officials concerned during the execution of Nizami's death sentence.
Dhaka Central Jail Mosque Imam Monir Hossain read out 'tauba' to Nizami after he (Nizami) completed his bath and ablution.
Earlier, 22 members of Nizami's family met the Jamaat chief for the last time inside his prison cell at about 8:00pm. Senior Jail Supre Jahangir Kabir went the central jail with the hanging order at about 6:00pm. Earlier in the day, a delegation went to Nizami's cell inside the Dhaka Central Jail and asked him whether he would seek clemency to the President. The team included Additional IG (Prisons) Iqbal Kabir, and executive magistrate and jail super Jahangir Kabir. However, Nizami told them that he would not seek presidential clemency for his life.
Following the decline to seek clemency from the President, the jail authoritries started taking all necessary preparations to carry out the execution of Jamaat chief by hanging. Movement of all modes of vehicles on the road in front of the jail was stopped.
Hangman Raju, along with several other hangmen were called in by the Dhaka Central Jail authorities to carry out the execution of Nizami's death sentence.
The Dhaka Central Jail authorities kept ready four ambulances to carry the body of Jamaat ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami after his death by hanging to his village home in Pabna district.
Security was tightened around the Dhaka Central Jail over the execution of his death sentence. The law enforcers stopped plying of all modes of transport putting barricades around the Dhaka Central Jail. A former minister in ex-premier Khaleda Zia's BNP-led four-party coalition government, Nizami had been in jail since 2010, when he was arrested to be tried 1971 war crimes.
He was given capital punishment in October 2014 by the tribunal after being convicted of “superior responsibility” as the chief of the Al-Badr militia forces in 1971.
He was particularly found guilty of systematic killings of over 450 people alone in his own village. With Nizami, five politicians have so far been hanged for war crimes since 2010. Other four are Abdul Kader Molla, BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, Jamaat leaders Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Kamaruzzaman. (Sources: newsbangladesh.com, 10/05/2016)
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