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- Death Row convict found innocent on the day that he died.
- The man was proven innocent six months ago; however, it took another six months for the typing and transferring of the order.
On October 7, Sunday, the Khulna jail received a High Court order for a man named Obaid Ali to be released from death row as he has been found innocent by the court.
But what’s supposed to be a joyful news became a sorrowful one because the man just died that same morning due to colon cancer.
What’s even sadder was that the resident of Satkhira’s Kukhrali village has been a death row convict for 13 years and has been declared innocent six months ago. However, it took another half a year to type the high court order that made its way from Dhaka to Khulna.
The one who treated Ali in the last four years of his life, Dr . Subrata Kumar Mondal, registrar of KMCH, stated that the man really wanted to spend time with his family before he died. Ali was charged with the murder of two police constables in 2003.
It was said that constables Fazlul Haque, Abdul Motaleb and Abdul Ahad were on the way back home when they were attacked by people with knives. Fazlul and Abdul were killed while Ahad only sustained injuries.
A day after the incident, Habildar Ruhul Amin filed a case with Satkhira Sadar Police Station. In the span of three years, Ali was sentenced to death. Within seven days of sentencing, he filed an appeal with the High Court but that alone took six years to resolve. He was pronounced innocent, but Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s decision six years later.
Sheikh Ashiqur Rahman Shaon, Ali’s son, has been helping his father obtain the papers from the court.
“I met with the Chief Justice last September 5 hoping to get a copy of the order. Before that, I had met with the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission.
“Because the order copy did not reach the prison authorities in time, my father had to spend six extra months in jail. Unfortunately, those were his last days.”
Ali’s wife Ambia Khatun, expressed that she just wanted justice.
“I want justice for my husband’s death. I want compensation. My two daughters, son and I have spent the last 13 years without him as a guardian. When we finally had a chance to be together, that too was snatched away.”
