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
