Appellate Division hears defence plea at 10:30am today; Jamaat calls countrywide daylong strike
In a dramatic development, just two hours before the scheduled execution of the Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah at 12.01 am on Wednesday, the Chamber Judge of the Appellate Division stayed the execution. The order was passed by the Chamber Judge at around 10 pm when all was set for the execution. In response to a stay petition, Chamber Judge Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain at his residence stayed the execution until 10:30 am Wednesday. The Appellate Division will hear the petition at 10.30am Wednesday, defence lawyers said.
“The jail authorities cannot execute our client till 10:30am as we have handed over the stay order of the Chamber Judge to the Inspector General of Police (prison) timely. The Appellate Division will hear the petition at 10.30am Wednesday,” Mollah’s lawyer Barrister Abdur Razzak, told a crowd of the newspersons at the jail gate after handing over the court order to the jail authorities.
The huge crowd of journalists packed the jail gate premises to cover the apparently ‘first ever execution of a war crime convict in the country’ after the government announced Mollah would be executed at 12.01 am on Wednesday.
At 7:15 pm Tuesday, the state minister for home Shamsul Haque Tuku announced that Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah (65), who was awarded death sentence by the Supreme Court in connection with a case filed with International War Crimes Tribunal (ICT) would be executed at 12.01 am on Wednesday.
The jail authorities took all preparations and the family of Mollah had their ‘last meeting’ with Mollah at the jail at 8.30 pm.
Soon after announcement of his execution by the home ministry, the lawyers of Mollah rushed to the residences of the Supreme Court chamber judge and the attorney general with a stay petition.
The petition stated that the government has taken preparations to execute Mollah without finishing all legal procedures. Hence, the court should take initiatives to stay the ‘illegal’ move of the government.
Defence lawyers said as Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, Barrister Abdur Razzaq and Advocate Tajul Islam went to the residence of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain, he asked them to give a copy of the petition to Attorney General Mahbubey Alam so that he can place arguments.
The defence lawyers then went to the residence of the attorney general in Minto Road area at around 9:00pm, but the chief law officer of the state was not at home at that time.
They also failed to reach the attorney general through mobile phone.
Then the lawyers went back to the chamber judge’s residence.
After an hour, the lawyers of Mollah informed the media that the chamber judge of the apex court stayed the effectiveness of the death warrant till Wednesday at 10.30pm.
Soon after receiving the copy of the stay order from the Chamber Judge, the lawyers led by Razzak rushed to the Dhaka Central Jail with the copy of the chamber judge order.
The defence lawyers handed over the copy to the jail authorities at about 11.15 pm.
The jail authorities initially noted that the defence failed to hand over the stay order through proper channel by registrar office of the tribunal. After a while they announced that Mollah could not be executed as per the schedule as the court had stayed it.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami has called a daylong nationwide strike for Wednesday, protesting the death warrant against Mollah, the party said in a statement.
Earlier in the afternoon, jail authorities have asked the family of condemned Jamaat-e-Islami leader Abdul Quader Mollah to meet him at Dhaka Central Jail by 8:00pm.
The relatives of Mollah met the condemned prisoner in the central jail at 8.30 pm as per the jail authorities’ directive. Before the meeting, Mollah’s son Hasan Jamil told the newspersons at the jail gate that they were requested by the jail authorities through a letter to meet his father on emergency basis.
In the morning, the condemned convict Jamaat leader instructed his lawyers to file a review petition with the Supreme Court, challenging its verdict while his lawyers met him inside the jail. “Mollah instructed us to file a review petition with the Supreme Court against its verdict,” said Barrister Abdur Razzak.
The International Crimes Tribunal-2 on February 5 sentenced the Jamaat leader to life imprisonment on five charges of crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 liberation war, following which Mollah filed an appeal against the ICT judgment seeking his acquittal. The government, however, appealed for the death penalty.
After five months of hearing, a five-member Appellate Division bench, headed by the Chief Justice, accepted the prosecution plea and awarded the death penalty to Mollah on September 17.
On December 8, soon after receiving the apex court verdict, the three-member ICT bench, led by Justice Obaidul Hassan, issued the death warrant against Mollah.
Tribunal registrar AKM Nasir Uddin on that day said all necessary documents, including the copy of the apex court verdict, were sent to the authorities concerned.
The jail authorities would now take steps to execute the death warrant, he added.
On the same day Mollah was transferred from Champakali Cell to the condemned cell at around 9:30pm.
The defence counsel, however, protested against the issuance of the death warrant and claimed that the constitution forbids the issuance of a death warrant without giving the defender any scope to file a review petition.
“According to Article 105 of the Constitution, Mollah must be given the scope to file a review petition within 30 days of receiving the certified copy of the apex court verdict,” defence lawyer advocate Tajul Islam said.
Replying to a query whether the ICT Act would allow the defence to file a review petition, he said: “That is a faulty interpretation. Some people are doing so deliberately. The Supreme Court conducted the trial proceedings following its rules and the Constitution. It is not under the ICT Act. The Constitution allows a convict to file a review petition against its judgment and the ICT Act is not above the Constitution,” Tajul Islam said.
The coordinator of the war crimes trial and additional attorney general MK Rahman said the legal proceedings have ended and Mollah can now only seek mercy from the president.
-With The Independent input
