The Supreme Court’s judgement in war criminal Quader Mollah’s case is likely to be released by this week as it was almost ready except little formalities, said the apex court sources.
A five-member Appellate Division bench of the SC, headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain on September 17 had pronounced the verdict that sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Mollah to death.
Justice seekers have eagerly been waiting for the copy of the full judgment since, as the government could not start the process of executing the death sentence until the copy was released.
The four other judges of the bench were Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, Justice MA Wahhab Miah, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice AHM Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik.
The SC bench gave Mollah the death penalty by a majority, as one of the five judges, even though finding Mollah guilty, was against capital punishment for the Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general.
The SC source said two of the four judges, who had awarded death sentence to Mollah, completed writing of their elaborate judgment and signed earlier. These two judges wrote in favour of the four, who had awarded death sentence.
Another judge of the bench, who was against awarding a death sentence also completed writing his elaborate judgment and signed it, said the source.
Contacted, the Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the Dhaka Tribune last night that he was aware of the development.
He said now the order of the court would be readied, which Mahbubey mentioned as “matter of formalities” to release the full text of the judgment.
“I hope the judgment will be released by this week or very soon,” said Mahbubey.
“Following the release of the judgment, the government will decide when and how its orders will be implemented,” he said.
There was a debate over the review of this judgment. The defence counsels argued that they would have the right to file an application in the SC to review this judgment. However, AG mahbubey on Sunday again said, “There is no scope of reviewing the judgment of the Quader Mollah case.”
He said after releasing the judgment, the government could start the process of execution, which has to be implemented within 21 and 28 days from the day the authority receives the judgment.
International Crimes Tribunal-2, on February 5, had found Mollah, 65, guilty on five of the six charges of crimes against humanity. But, the Supreme Court in its maiden verdict in a war crimes appeal found Mollah guilty on all six charges brought against him.
The Tribunal-2 awarded Mollah, infamous as “Mirpurer Kasai” (Butcher of Mirpur), maximum life imprisonment even though it had been proved beyond doubt that the Jamaat leader had committed heinous war crimes.
Overruling the judgment of the Tribunal-2, that had given Mollah life term for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in 1971, the SC awarded him death sentence, which is highest punishment in the country.