Attorney General Mahbubey Alam thinks contempt of court proceedings should be initiated against the family of executed war criminal Abdul Quader Molla.
He expressed the opinion while talking to reporters at his office yesterday just after the press conference of Quader Molla’s son Hasan Jamil, who claimed that the government had “brutally killed” his father in the name of execution.
Jamil, speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association auditorium, said Quader Molla, a senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader, could not know on what grounds the Appellate Division had dismissed his review petition against the death penalty. The full judgement on the review petition was released on November 25.
The International Crimes Tribunal on February 5 last year awarded Molla life imprisonment for committing crimes against humanity. He was later sentenced to death by the Appellate Division.
Known as the “Butcher of Mirpur” during the 1971 Liberation War, the Jamaat leader was executed on December 12 last year after the apex court had dismissed his review petition.
Jamil said the UN, the USA, the European Union and many other countries including Australia and Turkey, and international human rights organisations had urged the government to suspend Quader Molla’s execution. “But defying their appeals, the government killed him.”
He also said the “dictator government” had not allowed the family to participate in Molla’s namaz-e-janaza.
Molla’s wife, Sanowara Jahan, and his lawyers were also present at the press conference.
Denying the allegations, the attorney general said Molla had been given every opportunity during the trial proceedings – from trial court to the Appellate Division. “With the help of a particular quarter, his family is now making baseless statements to question the trial. He [Molla] was executed after trial at the apex court. If the family thinks it is a murder then I think contempt of court proceedings should be started against them.” The top law officer, however, did not mention whether contempt proceedings would be initiated against Molla’s family or not.
