HC to hear 52 death references in vacation

Eleven High Court benches would begin on March 20 hearings on 52 death penalties, to be disposed of during the two-week Supreme Court summer vacation.

All the death penalty cases, popularly known as ‘death references’, have been pending with the High Court since 2016.

The benches will have nine workdays between March 20 and March 31 to hear and dispose of the death references along with appeals from death-row prisoners, according to a notification issued by the Supreme Court administration on March 10.

According to the notification, eight HC benches have been assigned to dispose of five death references each while the rest three HC benches four references each.

Senior Supreme Court lawyer Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury welcomed the move by chief justice Hasan Foez Siddique to dispose of the death references during the vacation.

Many death-row inmates, Munsurul said, have to wait in jails, even for more than a decade to get their appeal heard by the Supreme Court.

The country’s 67 prisons had 2,006 death-row inmates, 1,952 male and 54 female, as of June 9, 2021, according to the Department of Prisons.

Death-row convicts have been languishing in jails for years as 1,300 appeals from such convicts are waiting to be heard by the High Court and the Appellate Division, said prison officials.

The 52 death references include one relating to six death-row prisoners Ashiqur Rahman, Iliyas, Ibrahim, Romin, Robin and Abdur Rahman — all young men — who were sentenced to death on August 23, 2016 by a women repression (prevention) tribunal in Narsingdi for raping a woman worker and taking video of the scene in 2013 in Palash upazila of the district.

The death-penalty case against the six prisoners was sent to the High Court in seven days after pronouncement of the verdict to examine if their death sentences would be confirmed or not.

But the HC could not take up the case for hearing in the last six years as such cases are heard according to year-wise serial numbers.

The High Court would now hear and dispose of death references it has received since 2016.

The court is yet to take up death references from 2017 to March 2022, according to court officials.

News Courtesy:

https://www.newagebd.net/article/165198/hc-to-hear-52-death-references-in-vacation