Bangladesh Government on Monday sought death penalty for rightwing Jamaat-e-Islami’s 91-year-old supremo Ghulam Azam as it challenged in the Supreme Court a 90-year jail term gave him by a special tribunal for war crimes.
“We have sought the capital punishment for him (Azam) in our appeal prayers with the Appellate Division (of the Supreme Court),” chief coordinator of prosecution lawyers MK Rahman told newsmen.
He said the State side also simultaneously sought ban on the politics of Jamaat-e-Islami, the party which Azam headed as the chief of its the then East Pakistan wing, as it was opposed to Bangladesh’s independence.
The Government appeal came a week after Azam appealed against the jail term and nearly a month after the country’s International Crimes Tribunal sentenced him to 90 years in jail. The judgment, however, said Azam deserved the death penalty for siding with the Pakistani junta but physical condition forced the panel to deliver this verdict.