Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Gabriela Knaul. Credit: UN Photo
Two independent United Nations human rights experts on Monday urged Bangladesh government to halt the execution of Abdul Quader Molla, whose death sentence could be carried out “as early as tomorrow’ (Tuesday).
Independent experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme.
According to UN, the positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.
Molla was sentenced to life in prison by the International Crimes Tribunal and later on government appeal, the Supreme Court sentenced him to death on Sep 17.
As the Supreme Court final verdict cannot be appealed, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Gabriela Knaul said “The right of appeal is of particular importance in death penalty cases”.
“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,” she said in a news release.
“This provision is violated where a court of final instance imposes a harsher sentence that cannot be reviewed”.
Knaul and the Special Rapporteur on summary executions, Christof Heyns, reiterated their concerns that the defendant was not granted a fair trial.
“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,” said Heyns.
“Any death sentence undertaken in contravention of a Government’s international obligations is tantamount to an arbitrary execution,” he stressed.
“Only full respect for stringent due process guarantees distinguishes capital punishment as possibly permitted under international law from a summary execution, which by definition violates human rights standards”.
He also cautioned that “under such circumstances, the execution of Mr. Mollah could trigger further violence and unrest that has been agitating the country in the recent months”.
The experts called for all the defendants whose cases are underway before the Tribunal and the Supreme Court to receive fair trials.
Source: Bd news24
LONDON ECONOMIST’S UNMASKING OF CRIMINAL, CONSPIRATORIAL SKYPEGATE AND LATER ON THE VERDICT-GATE SCANDAL APART, POLITICAL MOTIVATION OF THIS KANGAROO COURT TRIAL ON PRETEXR OF “TRYING” SO CALLED WAR CRIMINSALS HAS TIME AND TIME AGAIN BEEN EXPOSED. THE LATEST IS HASINA’S OFFER TO BEGUM KHALED “ GIVE UP YOUR EFFORT TO SAVE THE WAR CRIMINALS, ABANDON THE JAMMAT & THEN I AM WILING TO TALK ANYTHING YOU WANT INCLUDING MY RESIGNATION TO HELD THE ELECTION”. Earlier she (Hasina said pointing at Begum Khaleda Zia, twice the prime minister of the country and now the leader of the 18 Party alliance), “WHO IS SHE? SHE IS THE WIFE OF A RAZAKAR. MY FATHER, THE GREATEST BENGALI OF ALL TIME, THE FATHER OF THE NATION LIBERATED THIS COUNTRY & HER HUSBAND AS A PAKISTANI ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER SERVED PAKISTANI JUNTA WHO WERE KILLING OUR PEOPLE”. HER BODY IS IN OUR BANGLADESH BUT HER HEART IS IN HER “JAN-PIYARA (BELOVED) PAKISTAN. WHY SHE DOES NOT GO THERE AND LEAVE US ALONE? WE WOULD NOT STOP HER GOING THERE.”- compiled by Dewan Monju Munshi:Dhaka—
Witness Momena is fake: Molla’s wife
War crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla’s family has claimed witness Momena Begum whose testimony got the Jamaat-e-Islami leader the gallows is ‘fake’.
Molla’s wife Sanowar Jahan made the claim on Monday at a media conference, a day after a tribunal issued a death warrant for him. The defence, too, had claimed that the Jamaat leader was not the Quader Molla who had committed the crimes. Molla was given life imprisonment in February this year for his atrocities during Bangladesh’s Liberation War but the Appellate Division later revised the verdict to a death sentence at the Prosecution’s appeal.The sixth charge had sealed the death verdict for Molla.It accuses Molla of directing a band of men to shoot Hazrat Ali Lashkar, slaughter his wife and two daughters, and his two-year-old son on Mar 26, 1971 at their Mirpur Section 12 residence.
One of Lashkar’s daughters was also raped. Prosecution said Molla received the maximum penalty based on Momena’s testimony.Speaking at a news conference at the Supreme Court, the Jamaat leader’s wife claimed: “Momena Begum had not come to testify in court. Some other woman was played up as Momena who had testified in a secret camera trial.”Our lawyers saw the picture of real Momena Begum and ascertained that the woman who had testified in the court was not Momena,” she said.Sanowara Jahan said her husband had been handed death sentence based on the deposition of a ‘sham witnesses’.She demanded the matter of ‘forgery’ be investigated.
“We believe the verdict is a wrong one. Abdul Quader Molla’s death verdict can be altered by highlighting these issues if we get a chance to file a review petition as per the Constitution,” she said.The defence, too, had said they would file a review plea but the Prosecution said the constitutional provision would not be applicable in case of war crimes convict Molla.The Constitution of Bangladesh says those convicted of genocide cannot be accorded basic rights. Molla’s wife alleged the government was trying to hurriedly execute his verdict. “The attempts to execute the death sentence by denying the constitutional right to review verdict and not following the jail code are not only illegal but also contrary to universal human rights,” she said.Source: Bd news24 09.12.13.