Not a surprise judgment. It was predicted
----- Original Message -----From: Shamim ChowdhuryTo: Shamim ChowdhurySent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 4:40 AMSubject: [ALOCHONA] Mujib's killers must hang: SC
The long-awaited judgment has cleared the way for hanging of all 12 former army officers convicted of the 1975 assassination, seven of whom are fugitives.
A five-strong bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Justice Mohammed Tafazzal Islam, set aside the appeals against previous court sentences to hang them for the multiple murders.
The five killers will go to the gallows, unless the president grants them clemency.
A defence counsel, barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, has said a review petition will be filed on the rejection of the appeals.
The condemned men were not present in the courtroom when the Justice Mohammed Tafazzal Islam gave the historic judgement at 11:47am.
The five convicts are Syed Faruk Rahman, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan. They, however, can seek to have the verdict reviewed by the Appellate Division.
Justice Islam, in his six-minute delivery, upheld the verdict of the third High Court judge made in 2001.
He said the convicts were not in active service during the killings and that there was no legal error by holding their trial under civil law instead of army law.
The judge said it was not a mutiny, but a conspiracy to kill Bangabandhu.
He also said the trial court and the High Court gave valid reasons for the 21 years of delay in filing of case.
The Appellate Division accepted their explanation in reaching the final verdict Thursday on the appeals filed by the convicts eight years ago, Justice Islam said.
He said the prosecution had proved without a doubt the allegations against the five convicts, and therefore their appeals had been rejected.
The verdict, handed down amid unprecedented security at court room-1 because of the political sensitivity of the case, is seen to help excavate a past that had been all but wiped from official history.
The guiding figure of independence from Pakistan, Mujib was killed along with 17 others of his family in the bloody military putsch on Aug 15, 1975. As many as 28 people were killed on that day.
His daughters, prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, escaped death only because they were in England.
'Epoch-making'
Attorney general Mahbubey Alam called Thursday's judgment "epoch-making".
"It'll be remembered as one of the greatest trials in the history of mankind," he said in a post-verdict press conference.
Sheikh Rehana, in her reaction, said it was important that the verdict had been upheld by the Supreme Court.
She told bdnews24.com by phone from abroad: "I pray for the peace of the departed souls of those killed that day. I hope the shame of the incident will be erased from our history through this final verdict.
"The trial has finally ended after 34 years. Justice has been established," Rehana said.
Abul Hasanat Abdullah, whose father Abdur Rob Serniyabat was killed on Aug 15, welcomed the final judgment.
"The nation has erased the stains of the past through this verdict."
Awami League leaders and supporters, defying party instruction, took to the streets on hearing the verdict.
AL-backed lawyers were also chanting the slogan 'Jai Bangla Jai Bangabandhu' at the Supreme Court premises.
Maximum penalty remains
The top court set the final judgement day on Nov 12 after the 29 days of hearing. The prosecution at the hearings opposed the defence's plea for commuting death penalties to life imprisonment since they have been languishing in jail due to delay in appeal hearings.
The prosecution argued that in that event, the crime would be condoned.
The arguments in the Bangabandhu murder appeals hearing began on Oct 15. Its progress has depended upon the political dispensation in power. None was allowed to file a case immediately after the assassination.
The trial resumed after a long gap with the return to power of his elder daughter, Hasina, in January this year. The trial, however, had slowed down and came to a halt during the regime of her rival, Khaleda Zia, during 2001-06.
Almost all the 15 officers were direct beneficiaries of the military coup and were rewarded with plum diplomatic jobs overseas until Hasina became prime minister in 1996. The coup leaders were pampered by successive governments including the BNP and publicly boasted of 'saving the country from tyranny'.
Khaleda's husband, Ziaur Rahman, himself a war hero, sent out most officers believed to be involved in the murder conspiracy on diplomatic assignments for many years.
Sheikh Mujib had imposed one-party rule, months before his assassination, and his critics accused him of corruption. But Hasina has insisted that her father would have returned democratic rule.
The government of Khandker Mushtaq Ahmed that was installed after the bloody military coup passed an ordinance in November that year indemnifying the perpetrators and closing the door on the possibility of a trial.
The Awami League government revoked the indemnity ordinance in 1996 and cleared the way for the trial. Then, Sheikh Mujib's personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed a case on Oct 2, 1996 with Dhanmondi Police Station against 24 persons.
The Appellate Division had accepted the appeals for hearing on five points on July 23, 2007.
They are: the third High Court judge did not give his ruling lawfully, the filing of First Information Report was delayed, army mutiny was held on Aug 15, conspiracies were plotted and the High Court did not properly analyse evidence.
On Nov 8, 1998, Dhaka sessions judge Golam Rasul awarded death sentences to 15 of the 20 accused. Four of the convicts—Major (retd) Bazlul Huda, Lt Col (dismissed) Syed Faruk Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed—appealed to the High Court against the verdict.
The High Court on Dec 14, 2000 found 10 former army officers guilty of the murder. But the two-member high court panel was split over the guilt of five others who had also been convicted and sentenced to hang by a lower court two years ago.
One judge--Justice A B M Khairul Haque-- retained death sentences of all the 15, while the second--Justice Mohammed Ruhul Amin-- acquitted five of them for lack of evidence.
A third High Court judge--Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim--acquitted three of the 15 convicts. Four of them appealed for reprieve the same year. Another death convict, retired Lt Col (lancer) A K M Mohiuddin, made an appeal from jail after he was deported from the United States on June 18 last year.
Five of the twelve convicts are in the condemned cells of Dhaka Central Jail.
Of the remaining seven, one died and six are fugitives from justice in foreign lands. The still absconding Lt Col (retd) Khandaker Abdur Rashid is in Pakistan, Lt Col (retd) Shariful Haque Dalim is in Canada, Lt Col (retd) A M Rashed Chowdhury in South Africa, Lt Col (retd) S H B M Noor Chowdhury in the US, Risaldar Moslemuddin in Thailand and Capt (retd) Abdul Majed lives in Kenya.
Maj (retired) Bazlul Huda, Lt Col (dismissed) Syed Farukur Rahman, lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed (arty) have for long been detained in the condemned cells.
Lt Col (retd) Abdul Aziz Pasha died as a runaway in Zimbabwe years back.
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