Death-row convicts can't be confined to condemned cell before finality of trial: HC

The High Court (HC) on Monday issued a direction that death-row convicts cannot be confined to condemned cell before attaining finality of their sentence by the latest judicial and administrative forums.
The HC bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Bazlur Rahman delivered the verdict after hearing a writ petition filed in this regard.
The HC asked the jail authorities to shift all condemn prisoners from the condemn cell to general cell within two years.
In the observation, the HC said every prisoner under sentence of death means prisoner whose sentence has been final and executable after completing all process held by the High Court and Appellate Divisions and the mercy petition by the President.
The court said the death sentence prisoners should be treated like any other prisoners. Considering exceptional circumstances like contagious disease or homosexuality etc, any particular prisoner may be kept in isolated cell.
The government has been asked to take into consideration the observations made in this judgment.
The HC said death-sentence prisoners should be allowed to file bail application like other prisoners and the HC division, in appropriate case, should grant bail to them under section 426 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The Jail authorities are directed to provide information on the death sentence prisoners to the persons concerned under the Right to Information Act 2009.
The High Court and Appellate Division Registrars are directed to provide all information about the death reference confirmation, acquittal, commutation, man and woman etc to the persons concerned under the Right to Information Act and also directed to upload all information in the SC website and included in the annual report.
Three death-row convicts - Zillur Rahman from Chattogram Central Jail, Md Abdul Basir from Sylhet Central Jail and Md Shah Alam from Cumilla Central Jail - filed the writ petition in September 2021, challenging the legality of the actions of keeping them in the condemned cells.
Following the writ petition, an HC bench on April 5 in 2022 issued a rule asking the government to explain as to why the confinement of the death-row convicts to the death cell or condemned cell before attaining finality of their sentence by the judicial and administrative forums shall not be declared to have been done without lawful authority.
It also wanted to know in the rule to explain as to why the Rule 980 of the Bangladesh Jail Code relating to the confinement of death row inmates in condemned cell should not be declared unconstitutional.
Upon hearing on the rule, the HC bench on Monday disposed of it with some observations.
Lawyer Mohammad Shishir Manir stood for the writ petitioners, while Deputy Attorneys General Bepul Bagmar and Amit Talukder represented the state.

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