Abdul Quader Molla, 65, the fourth-highest-ranked leader of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, is the first politician to be found guilty by the country’s Supreme Court after it overturned an appeal to acquit him of all charges. “The court enhanced his life sentence to death penalty,” prosecutor Mohammad Ali said on 17 September. Lawyers said a five-strong Appellate Division bench threw away the defence appeal for acquittal of the BJI’s Assistant Secretary General. Defence lawyer Tajul Islam said: “We are stunned by the verdict. This is the first time in South Asian judicial history that a trial court sentence has been enhanced by a Supreme Court.”
The original life sentence delivered in February triggered widespread protests including by secular protesters angry over the apparent leniency of the sentence. The protests forced parliament to change the war crimes laws, allowing the prosecution to appeal against the verdict and seek the death penalty in the Supreme Court. Bangladesh has been in upheaval since the current government set up two war crimes tribunals to try those suspected of links to excesses during the liberation war.