Posts

Why Molla should not be executed ?

Human rights

Yes, I do not support the death penalty, but that is not why I am against the execution of Molla. 

Yes, I think there are many legal inadequacies in the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973, but that is also really not the reason? Yes, I am aware of the many controversies and scandals that have taken place at the tribunal (including the abduction of a defence witness, the release of skype conversations/e-mails showing at least one of the tribunal judges in collusion with the prosecution and the government, and at least 6 tribunal investigators and prosecutors seeking last month Awami League parliamentary seats) – but again these controversies, and there are many more, are not in themselves sufficient to make such an objection to Molla's death penalty.

The reason for my view that it is outrageous to put Molla to death is because of the flimsiness of the evidence on the charge which he has been sentenced to death and the fact that the tribunal simply did not allow him to put forward his defence, restricting his witnesses to five.

On the evidence issue (I will discuss the witness issue later) , please look below at Tuesday at 7.05pm which details the situation. 

What we have is as follows: a witness, giving evidence in court 42 years after the event stating that Molla was present, who had previously given two statements - one to a 1971 museum and another to the investigation officer - neither of which stated that Molla was present at the scene, and one of which stated that she was not even present at the time of the incident.

And we have a court – both tribunal and appellate division – who have decided not to take into consideration any of these previous statements which do obviously raise issues about the credibility of the witness.

Added to this, there is the fact that Momena, who was 13 years old in March 1971, had a breakdown after the murder of her family and, as far as the evidence shows, had never in the 42 year period between then and the time she gave her testimony in court, mentioned to anyone that Molla was present at the time her family was killed.

If all of this had been known by the investigation and prosecutors, there is surely no way that a case like this, would ever have resulted in a prosecution in most jurisdictions - yet alone going to trial and resulting in a conviction or execution.

28161 views 0 comments Bangladesh War Crime Tribunal Bangladesh  

---