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                   Bangladesh Set to Execute Islamist Leader

   Bangladeshi authorities are preparing to execute a leader of the
   country`s largest Islamist party who was convicted of mass murder and
   rape during the country`s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
   Prisons chief Mainuddin Khandaker said Tuesday that 65-year-old Abdul
   Quader Mollah of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party would be hanged
   shortly after midnight at Dhaka`s Central Jail.
   But a reporter for VOA in Dhaka said Bangladesh`s Supreme Court had
   delayed the execution until 0430 UTC Wednesday as Jamaat lawyers
   attempt to mount a legal challenge.
   Reporter Amir Khasru said the city is extremely tense and that extra
   police and paramilitary guards have been deployed throughout the
   capital and across the country. He said Jamaat leaders warned the
   execution could provoke a severe backlash.
   A Supreme Court ruling in September ordering Mollah`s death sentence
   triggered deadly clashes and a nationwide strike.
   Brad Adams of New York-based Human Rights Watch told VOA`s Bangla
   Service the execution could trigger huge unrest.
   "In the middle of this very volatile environment, where emotions are
   high, the execution would be a disaster... Even those who believe in
   the death penalty should understand that an execution now, in the
   middle of a political crisis, could lead to enormous violence and many
   deaths."
   A domestic war crimes court had originally sentenced Mollah to life
   imprisonment in February, but the sentence prompted protests by tens of
   thousands of secular demonstrators who viewed it as too lenient.
   Under pressure, the government amended the war crimes law retroactively
   to allow it to appeal the sentence and seek the death penalty, which
   the Supreme Court then handed down in September.
   In a report released Sunday, HRW warned that a death sentence handed
   down on the basis of a retroactively amended law violates international
   fair trial standards.
   The group and a U.N. Special Rapporteur also said Molla should be given
   the opportunity to appeal.
   Officials said Mollah refused to seek a pardon from the country`s
   president even when asked whether he would do so.
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   ader/1807423.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/bangladesh-set-to-execute-islamist-leader/1807423.html