The Supreme Court has upheld its previous verdict on convicted war criminal and also Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, rejecting his plea for reviewing death penalty.The four-member apex court bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha confirmed the capital punishment of Nizami on Wednesday, who served as Minister of Industry during the BNP-Jamaat alliance’s 2001-06 tenure.The other senior judges who sat on the bench are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) had ordered hanging of Nizami on Oct 29, 2014, for murders and rapes in Pabna and mass killing of intellectuals during the War of Independence.In 1971, Nizami was the chief of Islami Chhatra Sangha, the then student wing of Jamaat, and by this authority, he headed the Al-Badr force which was formed to help the Pakistani occupation force.The previous judgement had mentioned that he had also played key roles in the Razakar force and Peace Committee that were formed for the same purpose.The Al-Badr brigade had gone on a genocidal rampage to punish and cleanse the then East Pakistan of its secular, intellectual segments.When the verdict was pronounced, 72-year old Nizami was in Gazipur’s Kashimpur jail.This former minister in January 2014 was also given the death penalty for arms trafficking in Chittagong’s sensational 10-truck arms haul case.Nizami’s one was the sixth war crimes case to be judged by the apex court after the war crimes tribunal was set up in 2010.Those inside the packed courtroom and large crowds gathered outside the court premises welcomed Wednesday’s verdict. Several celebratory processions were also taken out in various places.Nizami is the third former minister to be on death row over war crimes committed in 1971.This is the second verdict of the top appeals court over the killing of intellectuals.