Jamaat-e-Islami leader and Bangladesh’s first war crimes convict Abdul Quader Mollah is leading a precarious life after his lawyers managed a last-minute stay for him on Tuesday night.
Barely two hours before he was to be hanged at the Dhaka Central Jail a minute past midnight, the Chamber Judge of the Supreme Court stayed the execution until 10.30am Bangladesh time.
When the full bench of the Supreme Court’s appellate division sat to examine the stay, Mollah’s lawyers represented that they had filed a petition to review the death penalty awarded on him by the Appellate Division.
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The full bench headed by Chief Justice Mohammed Muzzamel Hossain said they would hear the ‘maintainability’ of the review petition. They later adjourned the hearing until Thursday.
The dramatic last minute stay order on Tuesday night by a chamber judge triggered widespread confusion and frustration as Attorney General Mahbube Alam and prosecution coordinator of the war crimes trials M K Rahman said they were “completely unaware” of stay order on Mollah’s execution. “The situation is somewhat unusual. We could have been notified. But no one did that,” both of them said.