No condemned cells for convicts until death sentence finalised: High Court

The High Court has declared that no convict can be kept in the ‘condemned cells’ used to house death-row inmates until their death sentences are ‘finalised’.

The death sentence is only considered to be ‘finalised’ if it is upheld by the Appellate Division on review and the president declines to pardon the convict, the court said, reports bdnews24.com. 

The court ordered that any convict kept in a condemned cell or solitary cell without the death reference being finalised must be gradually transferred to an ordinary cell. This work must be completed within two years, the High Court said.

However, in special cases, the court opined that a convict suffering from a contagious disease may be kept in a condemned cell in consideration of the safety of other inmates. A convict also has the right to have their statement heard in such cases.

The bench of Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif and Justice Md Bazlur Rahman delivered the verdict after hearing writ petitions filed by three convicts in the condemned cells of prisons in Chattogram, Sylhet and Cumilla.

Lawyer Md Shishir Monir represented the petitioners, while Deputy Attorney General Amit Talukder stood for the state.

In its observations, the court said that confinement in condemned cells is considered a form of punishment under the penal code. As such, keeping a convict in the cell after the death sentence is finalised compounds the punishment.

The court also said the government should reflect these decisions and observations in the work it is doing to reform the prison code.