Law Minister: Formalities to execute Majed’s death sentence have begun

Formalities for carrying out the death sentence awarded to Capt (rtd) Abdul Majed, a former army officer and convicted killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, have got underway.

Law Minister Anisul Huq was speaking  in a video message sent to the media in this regard on Tuesday.

He said after the completion of all formalities, the death sentence would be carried out.

In answer to a question of whether Majed would increase the chances of a spread of coronavirus, the minister said like other death row prisoners, Majed would be kept in solitary confinement and so there would not be  any risk of coronavirus being spread through him.

On Tuesday at 3am, a team of Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of police arrested Majed in Dhaka’s Mirpur Cantonment area.

Later, Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate AM Zulfiker Hayat ordered sending him to jail after he was produced before his court.

On November 19, 2009, the Supreme Court upheld a High Court verdict that pronounced capital punishment for 12 assassins, including Majed, for killing Bangabandhu and most of his family members in a coup d’état on August 15, 1975.

Five of the killers remain fugitive -- Col (dismissed) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haque Dalim, Maj (retd) Noor Chowdhury, Maj (retd) Rashed Chowdhury, and Risaldar Moslehuddin Khan. Six of the assassins have meanwhile been executed.