元死刑執行人が死去、バングラデシュ最多の刑執行

【ダッカＡＦＰ＝時事】バングラデシュで最も多くの死刑を執行してきた元受刑者が２４日、死去した。警察が発表した。悪名高い連続殺人犯や戦争犯罪で有罪となった野党指導者、クーデター首謀者らの絞首刑を担い、１年前に刑務所から釈放されていた。（写真は、バングラデシュの刑務所で服役中、死刑執行役を務めた際に使われたロープの切れ端を見せるシャージャハン・ブーヤさん。首都ダッカ郊外ケラニガンジの自宅で）
　シャージャハン・ブーヤさん（７０）は、昨年６月に釈放されて以降、死刑執行人としての体験をまとめた本がベストセラーとなり、５０歳下の女性と短期間結婚。この数週間は、動画投稿アプリ「ティックトック」に１０代の少女らとの動画を投稿し、爆発的な人気を呼んでいた。
　警察によると、ブーヤさんは首都ダッカ郊外の工業都市ヘマイェトプールの自宅で２４日朝、胸の痛みを訴え、ダッカ市内の病院に搬送された。
　ダッカの警察署長サジブ・デイ氏はＡＦＰに、ブーヤさんは病院到着時には既に死亡しており、医師らは死因を特定できていないと語った。
　家主は借家人のブーヤさんについて、「息が苦しそうだった」「１５日前に部屋を借りたばかりで、一人暮らしだった」と語った。
　国際人権団体アムネスティ・インターナショナルによると、バングラデシュは死刑判決数で世界第３位。死刑執行は、受刑者が担っている。
　読書家で、マルクス主義者の革命家だったブーヤさんは１９７０年代、隣国インドのかいらいと見なす政権の転覆を目指す非合法組織に加わった。７９年、警察との銃撃戦の際にトラック運転手が死亡した事件で、殺人罪で有罪判決を受けた。
　１２年間続いた裁判の勾留中、死刑執行役を担っている受刑者が「最高級」の待遇を受けていることに気付いた。４人の受刑者にマッサージされる執行人も目にした。
　「絞首刑の執行人には非常に大きな力がある」。そう思ったブーヤさんは自ら執行人に志願。禁錮４２年を言い渡されていたが、数十人の死刑を執行したことで減刑され、昨年釈放された。
　ブーヤさんの死刑執行数について、矯正当局は２６回としているが、本人は６０回だと主張している。
　１９７５年にクーデターを企て、建国の指導者でシェイク・ハシナ・ワゼド首相の父を殺害した軍の将校らの処刑も担った。
　人権団体は、バングラデシュの刑事司法制度には大きな欠陥があると非難しているが、ブーヤさんはそうした批判を受け流す一方、少なくとも３人の死刑囚は無実だったと信じていると語っていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/06/25-16:57）

Bangladesh's deadliest executioner died Monday a year after he was released from prison where he hanged some of the country's notorious serial killers, opposition politicians convicted of war crimes and coup plotters, police said.
Since he was released from prison last June, Shahjahan Bouya, 70, wrote a top-selling book narrating his experiences as a hangman, briefly married a young girl 50 years younger than him, and in recent weeks took TikTok by storm with short clips with teenage girls.
He felt chest pain on Monday morning at his home in Hemayetpur, an industrial town outside the capital Dhaka, and was rushed to Dhaka's Suhrawardy Hospital, police said.
He was brought in dead -- doctors haven't ascertained the actual cause of his death, Sajib Dey, a police station chief in Dhaka, told AFP.
He had breathing difficulties, Abul Kashem, Bouya's landlord, told AFP. He rented one of our rooms only 15 days ago. He lived alone.
Bouya had been serving a 42-year-old jail term over a murder.
But the dozens of hangings he did in the jails helped reduce his sentence leading to his release from Dhaka's top jail last year.
Bangladesh ranks third in the world for death sentences passed according to rights group Amnesty International, and assigns convicts to carry out the hangings.
- 'So much power' -
A well-read Marxist revolutionary, Bouya in the 1970s joined the outlawed Sarbahara rebels trying to topple a government they saw as puppets of neighbouring India.
He was convicted for the 1979 death of a truck driver in crossfire with police.
In custody during his trial -- a glacial 12-year process -- he noticed the first class treatment afforded to executioners, watching one being massaged by four other inmates.
A hangman has so much power, he said to himself, and volunteered his services.
Prison authorities put Bouya's total at 26 executions, but he says he participated in 60.
Those to die at his hands included military officers found guilty of plotting a 1975 coup and killing the country's founding leader, the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Activists say that Bangladesh's criminal justice system is deeply flawed, but Bouya shrugged off their criticisms, even though he believes at least three of those he executed were innocent.
In February, his book on his years as a hangman was published and became a best-seller at Bangladesh's largest book annual book fair.
His 96-page book narrates the procedures of hanging by ropes the country inherited from the British colonial rulers.
He described the process nonchalantly, never wading into the debates over the abolition of executions.
He also dwelled on the final moments of some of the country's controversial figures and serial killers.