Motiur Rahman Nizami

Motiur Rahman Nizami (Bengali: মতিউর রহমান নিজামী; 31 March 1943 – 11 May 2016) was a politician, former Minister of Bangladesh, Islamic scholar, writer and a former Ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami. He was accused of leading Al-Badr during the Bangladesh War of Independence. On 29 October 2014, he was convicted of masterminding the Demra massacre by the International Crimes Tribunal. Nizami was the Member of Parliament from Pabna-1 constituency from 1991 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2006. He also served as the Bangladeshi Minister of Agriculture and Minister of Industry.

While various political entities and international organizations had originally welcomed the trials, in November 2011, Human Rights Watch criticised the government for aspects of their progress, lack of transparency, and purported harassment of defense lawyers and witnesses representing the accused. Nizami was the last high-profile suspect to be tried for war crimes of the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide; the court delayed his verdict in June 2014 because of the state of his health.

In 2004, Nizami was convicted under separate charges for arms trafficking to Assam, India and was sentenced to death, along with 13 other men in January 2014. On 18 December 2024, the HC acquitted Nizami in the arms smuggling case filed over the sensational 10-truck arms haul in Chattogram, observing that there was nothing in the police report regarding who had smuggled the arms, from whom, and where.

On 29 October 2014, he was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in masterminding the Demra massacre, in which 800–900 unarmed Hindu civilians were killed after the women were raped. He was executed by hanging at Dhaka Central Jail on 11 May 2016. He is the third minister of Bangladesh to be hanged. He was frequently listed on The 500 Most Influential Muslims.