'Will start where we stopped on Tuesday'

The process of executing Abdul Quader Molla will start from where it stopped on Tuesday after the chamber judge stayed it for a while.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 Dec 2013, 11:45 AM
Updated : 12 Dec 2013, 01:01 PM

Additional Secretary Main Uddin Khandaker, who holds charge as inspector general of prisons, said they are waiting for a decision from the government whether to go ahead with the execution immediately.

“We postponed executing the death verdict on Tuesday after getting a court order. Today (Thursday) we got a new order from the Appellate Division,” Main Uddin said on Thursday.

The prison official's response came after the Chief Justice-led Appellate Division bench scrapped Molla’s plea to review the death penalty.

The justices signed the order on the review petition and sent copies of it to the prisons authorities, home ministry and other concerned offices at around 3:45pm, Supreme Court’s Registrar AKM Shamsul Islam had said.

“We’ll resume execution process from where we left it on Tuesday once we get a decision from the government,” the Inspector General of Prisons said.

Earlier in the day a Deputy Attorney General had told bdnews24.com that there was no need to issue a death warrant anew as the International Crimes Tribunal had already issued one on Dec 8.

Molla can seek mercy from the President as the last resort but former Law Minister Shafique Ahmed had said war crimes convicts are not generally pardoned.

President Abdul Hamid is back in the country to take on board a clemency petition but junior Law minister Qamrul Islam said on Tuesday Molla has refused to seek presidential mercy.

However, defence counsel claimed the Jamaat assistant secretary general did not refuse it.

“The government will have to execute the verdict as per the law and jail code after the full verdict is published,” Abdur Razzaq told reporters on Thursday after the Supreme Court ruling.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said Molla was yet to decide on seeking presidential mercy. “There’s no chance for it now. However, it would be an entirely different matter if he (Molla) wants.”

The war crimes tribunal on Feb 5 sentenced the Jamaat leader to life for his Liberation War-time atrocities. Later on Sept 17, the Chief Justice-led bench raised the sentence to a death penalty.

A death warrant was issued after the full verdict was published.

On Tuesday evening, junior Home Minister Shamsul Hoque Tuku said the legal processes to hang Molla were complete.

Later, prison authorities said the death sentence would be carried out past midnight.

However, the execution was stayed by an order of the Chamber Judge until 10.30am on Wednesday.

The Appellate Division on Thursday rejected the Jamaat leader’s review plea after holding a hearing on Wednesday and Thursday.