Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed, secretary general of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, served as a minister during the BNP-led four-party alliance government’s rule between 2001 and 2006.
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Supreme Court’s Appellate Division issued the full text of the final verdict on Thursday, a day after it rejected the review petitions of Mujahid and Chowdhury, paving the way for their execution.
Security has been tightened around the jail, and restrictions have been placed on the use of several roads close to the jail.
Paramilitary forces have been deployed in the capital and in other major cities.
Although worldwide rights groups have criticised the trials as unfair, the government says they are vital for Bangladesh to confront its traumatic birth.
Lawyers said the pair were unlikely to seek mercy because it would require them to admit their war-time guilt. That culminated in a war with neighboring India that Pakistan lost, leading to the creation of Bangladesh.
This is the first time in Bangladesh’s history that two convicts are executed at the same time. Instead, Hasina has blamed the attacks on the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its main ally, Jamaat-e-Islami, accusing the opposition parties of trying to destabilize the country and halt the war crimes trials.
The executions happened hours after relations met with the 2 men within the jail & Bangladesh’s Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal formally announced in that the presidential clemency – their last probability for reprieve – had been turned down.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam had earlier said the two convicts have exhausted all their legal options against their conviction but could seek the presidential clemency as part of their “constitutional rights”.
Sons of the two convicts, however, questioned whether their fathers had in fact sought mercy, saying they did not believe the government’s statements.
Bangladesh maintains all trials by the tribunal followed proper judicial procedure.
Earlier reports said that a seven-member hangmen’s team comprising prison inmates was constituted to execute the convicts.
The 67-year-old Mujahid, Jamaat’s official number two, was sentenced for war crimes such as the killing of top intellectuals.
Following an arrest warrant on charge of hurting religious sentiment, on 16 December 2010, the police arrested Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and he was shown arrested later on 19 December 2010 in the cases relating to the crimes against humanity.
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There are fears that the executions could spark fresh unrest in the nation, which is reeling from a string of killings of secular bloggers as well as the murders of two foreigners in recent months.
