Govt to challenge HC order on keeping convicts in condemned cells

The government has decided to file an appeal against the High Court order that declared it illegal to keep convicts in condemned cells before the death penalty is finalized.

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin said this on Tuesday. "The state will appeal to the Appellate Division against the High Court order.”

On Monday, the High Court declared it illegal to keep convicts in condemned cells before the death penalty is finalized.

A High Court bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Bazlur Rahman passed.

Advocate Md Shishir Monir stood for the writ petitioner. Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder stood for the state. 

The court said the death sentence is only considered final if it is upheld by the Appellate Division on review and the president declines to pardon the convict.

Those who have been kept in condemned cells or solitary cells in prisons have been ordered to be transferred to general cells in phases before their death sentence is finalized. 

The High Court has given two years for this work.

On September 2, 2021, a writ petition was filed with the High Court challenging the legality of keeping the death row convict in a condemned cell before the final disposal of the case. 

Shishir Monir filed the writ petition on behalf of three death row convicts who were in a condemned cell in Chittagong Central Jail.

The writ petition sought the issuance of a rule asking why confinement in a condemned cell before the finalization of the death penalty should not be declared illegal. 

At the same time, the writ requested to transfer the three convicts from the condemned cell to the normal cell.