Since appeal of 5537 criminals sentenced to life imprisonment has not been resolved, the inmates do not know how long they will have to spend behind bars.
On Thursday (May 9), the information was given by Advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain to a six member appellate court led by chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain.
The state was represented by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Debnath.
Khandaker Mahbub Hossain told the court: “The 5537 inmates do not know how long they will have to spend in prison.”
Later, May 16 was fixed for the review hearing of the case to decide on the time-frame of life sentence.
On Oct 15, 2003, the court handed death sentence to Ataur Mridha and Anwar Hossain for murder. Later, during an appeal, the death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 2017.
The court also stated that life sentence would mean imprisonment till death; later, an appeal was made to have that decision re-evaluated.
The appellate division has fixed May 16 to hear the opinion of amicus curiae and for review hearing.