UN calls on Dhaka to abolish death penalty
The United Nations has renewed its call on the Bangladesh government to immediately institute a moratorium on the death penalty and abolish this inhuman practice altogether.
The call was made by Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement issued in Geneva today following Sunday’s execution of two war criminals.
“We have long warned that, given the doubts that have been raised about the fairness of trials conducted before the Tribunal, the Government of Bangladesh should not implement death penalty sentences,” she said.
“Similar concerns were expressed by UN human rights experts who, on several occasions, called on the government to halt the executions, as the trials did not meet international standards of fair trial and due process as stipulated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Bangladesh is a party,” Ravina Shamdasani.
She said the UN opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances, even for the most serious international crimes. “We renew our call on the Government of Bangladesh to immediately institute a moratorium on the death penalty and abolish this inhuman practice altogether.”
The UN statement said the execution in Bangladesh on Sunday of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed brings to four the number of people hanged following convictions by the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal.
Mojaheed, leader of Jamaat-e-Islami and Chowdhury, of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, were sentenced to death by the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal on charges of war crimes and genocide. The Supreme Court rejected their appeals on 18 November 2015.
Since its inception in 2010, the Tribunal has delivered 17 verdicts, of which 15 have resulted in the imposition of the death penalty against members of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Bangladesh National Party.
All those who were convicted were accused of committing crimes against humanity, genocide and other international crimes in 1971.
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