Staff Reporter:

Attorney General and senior Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Mahbubey Alam has died of coronavirus (Inna Lillahi wa Inna Ilahi Raziun). He breathed his last at 7.25 p.m. on Sunday (September 27) while undergoing treatment at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in the capital.

He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. Son Sumon Mahbub is a journalist and daughter Shishir Kona is a lawyer. Mahbubey Alam's death was reported on social media Facebook by his son Sumon Mahbub. "My father, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, died at 7:25 pm on Sunday," he wrote.

Attorney General felt fever on Thursday night, September 3. On Friday (September 4) morning, Corona tested positive for the test. On the same day, he was admitted to CMH Hospital on the instructions of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. This senior lawyer of the Supreme Court served as the Additional Attorney General of Bangladesh from 15 November 1996 to 4 October 2001.

Mahbubey Alam was elected Secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association in 1993-94 and President in 2005-2006. Later, on January 13, 2009, he was appointed as the Attorney General of Bangladesh.

Law Minister Anisul Huq had earlier said Alam had a rapid pulse. He had the problem beforehand but never informed the doctors about it, Anisul had said.

The minister had also said the last coronavirus test on Alam had come back negative.

As the state’s chief legal officer, he played an immensely significant role in ensuring the trial of the crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War.He also played a key role in a number of crucial cases, including those involving the Fifth, Seventh, 13th and 16th Amendment to the constitution.

He was involved in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case. Alam worked as the state’s chief counsel in the case over the killings during the BDR mutiny. Born in Munshiganj’s Louhajang on Feb 17, 1949, he graduated in political science from Dhaka University in 1968. He received a degree in public administration the next year and completed LLB in 1972.

He had been involved in leftist politics as a student and later worked as a vice-president of Bangladesh Youth Union.

Alam became a lawyer of the High Court in 1975 and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in 1980. He was listed as a senior lawyer of the Appellate Division in 1998 and had advised the court as an amicus curie.

He was elected the general secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association in 1993-94 and worked as an additional attorney general for three years from 1998.

Many top lawyers backed off when Hasina was arrested during the military-controlled government, but Alam stood firm.

That was the apparent reason behind Hasina choosing him as attorney general in January, 2009 after the Awami League returned to power.

Alam had sought to become the party’s candidate for a Munshiganj seat during the last parliamentary election, but Hasina insisted he continued as attorney general.

He received a diploma degree in constitutional law, and parliamentary institution and system from the Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies in New Delhi in 1979.

The popular lawyer toured India, Sri Lanka, France, the Netherlands, the United States, Egypt, Italy, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Tanzania and many other countries to attend seminars and symposiums.

He was an avid fan of Rabindranath Tagore.

President Hamid in a condolence message described Alam as a “frontline fighter” in the establishment of the rule of law whose demise is an “irrevocable loss” to the nation’s judiciary.

Hamid also praised Alam for conducting the Bangabandhu murder and war crimes cases with “profound skill”.

Hasina said Alam will always be remembered as a shining example of justness in the legal profession.