‘Surviving Death Row,’ a solo photography exhibition by documentary photographer Mosfiqur Rahman Johan that sheds light on the victims of a flawed justice system, is currently under way at the Nalinikanta Bhattasali Gallery of the Bangladesh National Museum in the capital.

The eight-day exhibition, which began on Monday, portrays 13 case studies of innocent people who spent long periods in prison facing the death penalty. Although they were later released after being acquitted, they continue to experience severe trauma.

Curated by Hadi Uddin, the exhibition exposes Bangladesh’s death row, highlighting the fact that around three thousand individuals are currently condemned to death.

Hadi noted that there is no psychological counselling or financial compensation to help former inmates reintegrate into society after their wrongful imprisonment.

Mosfiqur Rahman Johan said that while justice in Bangladesh is often equated with hanging, forced confessions in a flawed judicial system actually obstruct true justice.

‘Personally, I prefer not handing down a death sentence in a flawed justice system that lacks fair trials and suffers from systemic deficiencies in interrogation, adjudication, and punishment,’ Johan said, adding that the wrongfully convicted and their families carry the collective trauma of death row back into society.

The exhibition will run until June 15.