Law Minister Urges Appeal for Death Row Inmates in Pallabi Child Murder Case
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Law Minister Asaduzzaman stated Wednesday that the government is actively encouraging convicted defendants in a high-profile child rape and murder case in Dhaka’s Pallabi area to file an appeal, despite their current reluctance to challenge the verdict. Speaking at a seminar hosted by Dhaka University’s Center for Advanced Legal Studies, the minister emphasized that the state remains committed to ensuring the integrity of the judicial process by having the death reference and a potential jail appeal heard simultaneously by the High Court.
Addressing the expedited handling of the Pallabi case, the minister noted that authorities secured an arrest within seven hours and completed complex DNA testing within 72 hours. He underscored that although the evidence was compelling, the legal system required a rigorous adherence to procedure, including the filing of a charge sheet within five days. Notably, the state-appointed defense lawyer faced social media backlash for fulfilling his professional duty to represent the accused—a situation the minister cited to highlight the constitutional necessity of the right to legal counsel, even in the most egregious cases.
বিজ্ঞাপন
The seminar, which featured the release of a research report titled “Legal Representation of Death Penalty Cases in Bangladesh,” sparked a broader discussion on the country’s penal framework. The study, conducted by the Dhaka University Law Department in collaboration with the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) and The Death Penalty Project, reviewed 39 capital punishment cases. Researchers found that while 33 offenses currently carry the death penalty in Bangladesh, 25 of those do not involve the loss of life and fall short of international standards for “most serious crimes.”
Professor Muhammad Mahbubur Rahman, who led the research, argued that lawmakers have frequently introduced capital punishment as a reactionary measure to calm public outrage, failing to address deep-seated structural issues within the judicial system. Furthermore, advocate Sara Hossain pointed to a significant disparity in legal representation, noting that only 10 percent of families of death-row inmates expressed satisfaction with state-appointed counsel, compared to 50 percent for private lawyers.
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While the Law Minister acknowledged that he is personally opposed to the death penalty as a matter of human rights, he noted that the prevailing social and moral climate in Bangladesh—driven by the brutality of crimes such as the killing of an eight-year-old child—makes abolition a complex challenge. He expressed hope that as the nation progresses through various stages of societal development, it will eventually reach a point where the total elimination of capital punishment becomes a viable legislative reality.
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