Bangladesh SC puts on hold Mollah's execution

Chief Justice Mohammad Muzammel Hossain earlier today told the defence lawyers to “cooperate with the court”. 

“You are a senior lawyer, you know the law...you should cooperate with us,” he told chief defence counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain.

Mollah's lawyers said they obtained the stay order last night on their petition claiming that the government took preparations to execute Mollah “without finishing all legal procedures”.

For his atrocities carried siding with Pakistani troops during the 1971 Liberation War, Mollah was dubbed as the “Butcher of Mirpur”.

The war crimes tribunal sentenced Mollah to life imprisonment on February 5. The Appellate Division revised the verdict on September 17 and raised it to death penalty. 

Based on the highest court's verdict, the tribunal issued the death warrant for Mollah.

Mollah was arrested on July 13, 2010, while the tribunal indicted him on May 28, 2012, on six specific charges for actively participating, facilitating, aiding and substantially contributing to the attacks on unarmed civilians, “causing commission of the horrific genocides, murders and rapes”. 

Mollah, the fourth-highest Jamaat leader, was the first politician to be found guilty by the Supreme Court after it rejected an appeal to acquit him of all charges.