(Letter from Citizens International to Mrs. Navi Pillay) 20th September 2013 Mrs. Navi Pillay Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson 52 rue des Pâquis CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland Dear Mrs. Pillay, Subject: Execution of Death Sentence on Abdul Quader Mollah On 17 November 2013, on an appeal by the Prosecutor, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented decision in the judicial history of Bangladesh, enhanced the life imprisonment imposed on Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General . Abdul Quader Mollah by the International Crimes Tribunal to death sentence. The right of the Prosecutor to appeal against the sentence came into effect, through an amendment to the law, only after judgment was delivered by the ICT. It is trite law, which the Appellate Division ignored for political reasons, that criminal law cannot have retrospective effect. Thus, the decision to impose death sentence on Mollah is clearly illegal as it is not based on evidence and law but for the political objective of the ruling party, Awami League. According to reliable sources in Bangladesh, the Government is taking steps to execute the death sentence of Mollah passed on 17 September within 7 days. Since the decision is that of the apex court he has no right of appeal. The Attorney General had also stated that he also has no right to petition the court for a review of its decision. The Government has pressurized the Chief Justice to draft and sign a short order containing the substance of the death sentence so that it can carry out the execution. Short orders are usually passed by the Appellate Division in exceptional circumstances of constitutional importance or where immediate action is required. The Awami League Government is in a hurry to execute the death sentence before the next elections due in January 2014 so that it can claim it has fulfilled its pledge to its supporters to punish the “War Criminals”. The death sentence imposed on Mollah is the continued judicial lynching of the top leadership of the Jamaat. Earlier, Jamaat deputy chief Delwar Hossain Sayedee, Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman were convicted and sentenced to death by the two international crimes tribunals set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) government. Former Jamaat Ameer 93 year old Ghulam Azam had been sentenced to 90 year imprisonment by the ICT. All these verdicts are on appeal to the Appellate Division but, in the light of its decision in Mollah’s case, there is no chance of these appeals succeeding. Several other top leaders of the Jamaat and the main opposition party Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) have been lined up to go through the judicial charade and to be executed in Bangladesh. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had warned: “…no one will be able to stop the trial of war criminals. They will be executed on this soil” (The Daily Star, 3 March 2013). The ICT has been widely criticised by human rights groups, United Nations bodies and renowned legal scholars for failing to adopt international standards to ensure a fair trial and adequate protection of the rights of the accused. The judges appointed to ICT owe their position to the Awami League government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. With the publication in the British weekly The Economist and the Bangladesh daily Amar Desh the Skype conversations and emails between the ICT-1 Chairman Justice Ziaul Haq and Jamaat-hater Dr Ahmed Ziauddin, it is now public knowledge that there has been collusion among the judges, prosecutors, government ministers and Ziauddin to convict the Jamaat leaders. Even the Chief Justice Muhammad Muzammel Hosain, who chaired the Appellate Division panel hearing Mollah’s appeal, is implicated in this plot to pervert the course of justice. Ziauddin, who lives in Belgium, was directing the trials, preparing judgment and orders, advising the judges and prosecutors on the choice of witnesses and dealing with applications by the defendants. The Government has banned the publication of this judicial scandal and refused to order an investigation on the disclosures which can only mean it is deeply implicated in the conspiracy to subvert the course of justice. The death sentences passed on the Jamat leaders, if carried out, would amount to judicial murder. The Haq-Ziauddin communication signals the collapse of the independence and impartiality of the judiciary in Bangladesh. The international community, in particular the United Nations, cannot remain idle in the face of judicial murder taking place in this 21st century when humankind is celebrating the triumph of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Hanging Mollah and the others on the basis of illegal orders would amount to judicial murder. We, therefore, appeal to you to initiate action in the United Nations Security Council to stop the execution of the death sentences and to set up an independent tribunal to investigate the war crimes committed during the 1971 civil war and to prosecute and punish those responsible, regardless of party affiliation, for those crimes. This is the road that must be taken to do justice to the victims of the crimes and their families, and achieve national reconciliation. We enclose herewith the book Judicial Murder, The Bangladesh Judiciary on Trial published by us in the hope that it will contribute towards restoring democracy, human rights and the rule of law in Bangladesh. We welcome your comments. Kindly acknowledge receipt. Yours sincerely, …………………………………… S.M Mohamed Idris Chairman Citizens International 20th September, 2013 [CITIZENS INTERNATIONAL (CI) is a global initiative from Penang, Malaysia. It seeks to analyse the causes of increased militarisation of the planet and to work towards an environment of peace and international security including the preservation of social justice, ecology and sustainable development. Citizens International also intends to support the development of traditional knowledge systems.]
Posted on: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 11:47:15 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015