The Jashore Central Jail executed two people—Jharu, 64, and Mokim Alim, 57,—of Durlobpur village of Alamdanga in Chuadanga in 2017 although their appeals against death sentences are still pending with the Appellate Division.
‘Mokim’s widow Farzana told me that Jharu and her husband were executed in 2017 after the jail authority called their families to meet them,’ Mokim’s lawyer Humayun Kabir told New Age.
The Appellate Division could not hear the appeals of Jharu and Mokim as the court on Wednesday could hear seven cases while their appeals were enlisted in the cause-list as the 11th case for hearing.
Humayun said that his senior Ashif Hasan would draw the attention of the Appellate Division to the matter during hearing of the appeals and would demand compensation for the ‘extra-judicial murder’ of his clients.
‘The jail authorities executed the prisoners after receiving the copy of an Appellate Division judgement that had dismissed the appeals filed by the two convicts through the jail authority,’ attorney general AM Amin Uddin said.
He said that the two convicts had also filed regular appeals challenging the High Court judgement that upheld their death sentences in 2008.
A senior officer of the Jashore Central Jail, asking for anonymity, said that they had a copy of the Appellate Division judgement following which Jharu and Mokim were executed.
He, however, said that case numbers of Jharu and Mukim’s appeals which were enlisted by Appellate Division on Wednesday for hearing was different to that of the appeals which were dismissed by the Appellate Division earlier.
Senior lawyer and criminal law expert Munusur Hoque Choudhury called the execution of the appellants during pendency of their appeals as ‘murder’ and ‘unprecedented’.
According to him, a convict can file two kinds of appeals—one through the jail authority on the ground that they cannot afford lawyers to defend them and the other one through his lawyer.
Both of the appeals are usually heard together, he added.
Court-appointed lawyers may not represent a convict in a jail appeal properly fees are very small, he said.
‘It is a fault of the lawyers and the court officials and it should be investigated why the regular appeals in question could not be heard together and why the jail authorities could not be informed about the two appeals before execution of the two poor people as the matter is very unfortunate,’ he added.
‘A notice should be served from the court to the jail authorities about the appeals of the convicts,’ Munsurul said, adding that the lawyer concerned should have also informed the jail authority about such appeals.
Mokim’s son Moklesur Rahman said that his father and his acquaintance were executed as they failed to afford lawyers to conduct the case.
‘Former union parishad chairman Abul Kamal Azad, who was the mastermind of the killing, was acquitted of the charges by the High Court and he is now roaming in the village,’ he added.
