No bar to Quader Mollah execution: AG

Observing that the constitutional scope for filing an appeal for reviewing the judgment and the jail code are not applicable for condemned Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam on Monday said he can be executed anytime. The chief law officer of the state came up with the remarks while briefing reporters at his office.   Abdul Quader Mollah will be executed when the government issues directives to jail authorities as per the Section 20 (2 and 3) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act, he said, adding: “The jail code or the Constitution will not be application in this regard.”   The attorney general also said the condemned convict cannot file appeal to the Supreme Court as per the Geneva Conventions as he is a war crimes convict.   He, however, said he may seek President’s mercy.   Replying to a question as to when Quader Mollah would be executed, Mahbubey Alam said, “It depends only on the government.”   Responding to another question about the allegation of fake witnesses’ deposition against the Jamaat leader, he said those who raised the question about the judgment, gave a wrong explanation. “They don’t have respects to the law.”   Citing Section 20 (3) of the ICT Act that stipulates, ‘The sentence awarded under this Act shall be carried out in accordance with the orders of the Government’, the state law officer said, “So, the government’s decision will be considered as a final one in this connection.”   On Sunday, the International Crimes Ttribunal-2 sent to Dhaka Central Jail the death warrant for war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Mollah.   The full text of the Supreme Court judgment was released on Thursday.   On February 5, convicting detained Jamaat leader Quader Mollah on five counts of the 1971 war crimes, the ICT-2 unanimously sentenced him to life term imprisonment.   Later, the Appellate Division on September 17 with a majority decision sentenced lifer Jamaat leader Quader Mollah to death for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. – UNB