SC halts Quader Molla’s execution at last minute

After the Jamaat-e-Islami leader’s lawyers moved him, Chamber Judge Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on Tuesday night suspended the execution of Molla’s death sentence until 10:30am Wednesday.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, however, expressed frustration while speaking to bdnews24.com as he was not aware of any such order.

International Crimes Tribunal prosecution team coordinator, Additional Attorney General MK Rahman found the situation ‘somewhat unusual’.

However, minutes after the stay order was given, the Ganajagaran Mancha announced to occupy Shahbagh and braced for protests until the Jamaat Assistant Secretary General’s death sentence was carried out.

Supporters of the Jamaat went berserk across Bangladesh since Tuesday evening after news spread that Molla would be hanged at midnight. They attacked the houses of Awami League leaders at places.

The Jamaat has also called a nationwide daylong general strike for Wednesday. It threatened that the ruling party’s ‘political death’ will be ensured if Quader Molla was to hang.

On Tuesday, the Jamaat leader’s imminent execution could be sensed after top government officials held a closed-door meeting at the Secretariat and prison authorities wrote to Molla’s family asking them to meet him in the evening.

Around 7pm, State Minister for Home Shamsul Hoque Tuku told the media that the war crimes convict would be hanged 'tonight'.

After him, Dhaka Central Jail Senior Superintendent Farman Ali told reporters around 8pm that Molla’s death sentence would be carried out at 12:01am on Wednesday.

While State Minister for Law Qamrul Islam was telling mediapersons that the Jamaat leader had refused to seek presidential pardon, reports came in that Molla’s lawyers led by chief defence counsel Abdur Razzaq was on their way to the Supreme Court Chamber Judge’s Kakrail residence in a last- ditch attempt.

As many as 23 members of Molla’s family, including his wife, son and four daughters, entered the high-security prison around 7:45pm to meet him for the last time.

They came out around 8:45pm. At the time, prison authorities said that preparations for the execution were complete.

A large number of police were also deployed in front of the jail. Plainclothesmen along with over 300 RAB personnel stood guard in the area as traffic on the Nazimuddin Road before jail was blocked.

Earlier in the evening, four handmade bombs were exploded in front of the jail after the execution plan was announced.

All this while, Razzaq accompanied by Bangladesh Bar Council Vice-Chairman Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, a senior pro-BNP lawyer, and Tajul Islam, a key member of the Jamaat leaders’ defence, was still at Justice Mahmud Hossain’s house at the Judges Complex at Kakrail.

Around 10:30pm, after getting out of the Chamber Judge’s residence, Razzaq told bdnews24.com they had secured an order for suspension of the execution of the sentence until 10:30am Wednesday.

Reached for comment, Supreme Court Registrar AKM Shamsul Islam told bdnews24.com that an order of this nature had reached them. “We are contacting the prison authorities,” he said.

However, the prison authorities were at the ready to execute the death sentence until then. Around 10:45pm, one of Molla’s lawyers Farid Uddin arrived at the jail gate to deliver a copy of the stay order.

He told reporters, “The Chamber Judge has given the stay order. We are here to inform the prison authorities.”

Dhaka’s Civil Surgeon was seen entering the jail nearly at the same time Farid Uddin arrived.

Several minutes later, Abdur Razzaq also arrived there. After meeting the prison officials, he told reporters at the jail gate about the Chamber Judge’s order.

As the previously set execution time, 12:01am, passed, Senior Superintendent Farman Ali confirmed the journalists of the stay order on Molla’s execution.

The International Crimes Tribunal had on Sunday issued the death warrant for Molla on receiving a copy of the full version of the Supreme Court’s death verdict.

Earlier, Bangladesh's second war crimes tribunal on Feb 5 had sentenced Molla to life imprisonment for killings, rapes and looting during the War of Independence in 1971.

Perceived to be too lenient a penalty, it sparked off a wave of anger and frustration, drawing thousands of protestors to march across Dhaka to stream into what is by now the iconic Shahbagh crossway, birthplace of the youth-led civil uprising.

The mass protests that ran for weeks and spread to the whole of Bangladesh would later be known as “Bangla Spring’.

The Islamist party had issued threat of a ‘civil war’ the day prior to the verdict on Quader Molla.

The Prosecution moved the Supreme Court against the verdict. The highest court, on Oct 17, revised the life term to a death sentence.