The Supreme Court's Appellate Division has commuted the death sentence of Sharifa Begum, who has spent 24 years on death row, to life imprisonment.
The court on Thursday also ordered her immediate transfer from the condemned cell to the general prison population.
The ruling came following the appeal hearing against a High Court verdict. The seven-judge Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice Obaidul Hassan, delivered the judgment.
Advocate Mohammad Shishir Monir represented the petitioner.
Appeal unresolved for 21 years
On July 1, a national daily published a report highlighting Sharifa Begum's prolonged incarceration.
The report detailed that Sharifa was imprisoned in a murder case 26 years ago when her daughter Suchi Akter was just three months old.
Although her daughter has seen her mother in prison several times, she has never had the chance to touch or embrace her.
Sharifa Begum, now 55, has spent almost half her life in the condemned cell.
She was arrested in 1998, and in October 2000, a trial court sentenced her to death.
The High Court upheld the sentence in 2003.
However, her appeal remained unresolved for 21 years.
Throughout these years, neither the court, prison authorities nor the attorney general's office seemed to remember Sharifa Begum's plight as she lived in uncertainty, unaware of her fate.
According to prison officials, no other female inmate in the history of the country's prisons has been held on death row for such an extended period. It remains unclear if any woman has ever served as long as 26 years in prison.
Abdus Samad Azad, alias Samad, from Jamalpur, has also been on death row for 24 years in the same case.
He is the only male inmate to have endured such a prolonged period on death row.
Sheikh Zahid from Khulna was released in 2020 after spending 20 years on death row, following an Appellate Division order.
While severe criminal offences in the country often result in death sentences for women, the High Court and Appellate Division frequently commute these sentences to life imprisonment, acquittal or other terms.
To date, no woman's death sentence has been carried out in Bangladesh.
Death reference cases typically conclude within 15 years, with shorter durations for female defendants.
Under criminal law and Supreme Court rulings, a life sentence equates to 30 years, but with prison remission, it often decreases to 22.5 years or less in certain cases.
Following media reports on her situation, the Chief Justice took the initiative to prioritize Sharifa Begum's appeal hearing.
