The government yesterday discussed the procedure for executing war crimes convict and Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Molla.
Shafiq Ahmed, prime minister’s adviser for legal affairs, chaired the meeting at his office yesterday.
After the meeting, IG-Prisons Mainuddin Khandakar, who is also an additional secretary of the home ministry, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We have discussed all the issues including a probable mercy petition and controlling law and order while executing the verdict. We have fixed a strategy at the meeting.”
The meeting also issued some instructions to the home ministry for tightening security around the country.
A law ministry source said the meeting had also discussed various intelligence reports, which said Jamaat and its student front Shibir might give rise to massive subversion when Molla would be taken to the gallows.
Molla family’s presser
Molla’s family has alleged that the government has been denying him the constitutional right of reviewing verdict and is in a hurry to execute him.
The war criminal’s wife Sarwar Jahan and his son Hasan Zamil at a press conference made the comment yesterday.
“Quader Molla has a constitutional right to appeal for review. But we came to know that the government wants to execute him in a hurry,” they said.
“This verdict is wrong,” his family said, threatening that the verdict would trigger an Islamist movement. They also alleged that the execution of Quader Molla was moving under pressure of the Ganajagaran Mancha.
On the chances of seeking presidential clemency, the family said the decision would wait until they talked to the lawyers and Quader Molla.
HRW statement
The Human Rights Watch yesterday said Mollah should be granted the right to appeal for review against the conviction and death sentence.
“Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances as an irreversible, degrading, and cruel punishment,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It is particularly reprehensible in cases where laws were retroactively passed in order to enable the death penalty, and where the right to appeal against such a final judgment is not allowed.”
The death sentence was handed down based on retroactively amended legislation, a move which violates international fair trial standards, the HRW said.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bangladesh is a state party, prohibited the retroactive application of criminal law that has a negative effect on the defence, HRW added.
UN experts’ statement
Two UN human rights experts have urged the government to halt the execution of Quader Molla and uphold his right to review.
“Anyone convicted of a crime has the right to have his or her conviction and sentence reviewed by a higher tribunal, as laid down in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Bangladesh is a party,” said UN Special Rapporteurs on the independence of judges and lawyers Gabriela Knaul.
Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Christof Heyns noted: “In countries that have not abolished the death penalty, capital punishment may be imposed only following a trial that complied with fair trial and due process safeguards.”
They cautioned: “Under such circumstances, the execution of Mr Mollah could trigger further violence and unrest that has been agitating the country in the recent months.”
