HC bars keeping death-row convicts in solitary confinement till sentence finalised

The High Court (HC) today barred keeping people convicted and sentenced to death in condemned cells until their death sentences are finalised through disposal of all their appeals.

A High Court division bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Bazlur Rahman pronounced the judgment, disposing of a rule issued earlier in 2022.

Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir moved a writ petition filed in this regard, while attorney general AM Amin Uddin and deputy attorney general Amit Talukder stood for the state.

"The writ was filed in 2021 on behalf of three death row convicts, who have been kept in condemned cells in Chattogram, Sylhet and Cumilla jails. The High Court later passed order, asking authorities concerned to submit a report in writing on the facilities provided to 1,987 death row convicts in different jails across the country. It subsequently issued the rule," Advocate Manir said.

Quoting the court judgment, the Supreme Court lawyer further said the convicts cannot be termed as death-row-convicts and cannot be kept in condemned cells until their death sentences are finalised.

"The death-row-convict only be kept in solitary confinement when all their appeals including the mercy petitions are disposed of, all the official formalities are completed," he added.