Top Bangladesh Islamist ‘may hang next week’

Bangladesh may hang a senior Islamist leader as early as next week after the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence for war crimes, the law minister said Thursday. Mohammad Kamaruzzaman of the Jamaat-e-Islami party would be the second senior Islamist to hang for crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence that resulted in secession of the former East Pakistan.  Law minister Anisul Huq told AFP he could be hanged as early as next week unless he sought a presidential pardon. 

The 62-year-old assistant secretary general of Jamaat has seven days to petition the president for clemency, Huq said.  ‘On the expiry of seven days, if he does not apply for clemency... the sentence passed by the highest court of the country can be executed,’ he said.