Bangabandhu murder trial may resume next week
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Documents will be placed with the Appellate Division within a week for resumption of appeal hearings in the Bangabandhu murder trial, said Attorney General Mahbubey Alam Saturday, reports bdnews24.com.
"Now it depends on the chief counsel for the government to launch the process by fulfilling the pre-requisites," Alam told reporters after addressing a conference in the city.
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, also attending the conference as the chief guest, said all the laws were in place to try the killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as well as the trial of war criminals.
Of major pending cases in Bangladesh, the Bangaban-dhu murder trial has yet to see a conclusion, 34 years after independence architect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and family members were killed on August 15, 1975, by a group of army officers.
The subsequent administration passed an indemnity ordinance in November 1975, barring trial of the killers.
The Awami League government in 1996 cancelled the indemnity law to clear the way for trial.
Sheikh Mujib's personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed the case with Dhanmondi Police Station that year, 21 years after the murders took place. He named 20 individuals in connection with the case.
In 1998, Dhaka sessions judge Kazi Golam Rasul handed down the death sentence to 15 convicted out of the 20 accused.
The High Court in 2001 stayed the sentences on appeals by five of the convicted, and the sentences remained suspended during the BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
Six years later, in 2007, the Appellate Division admitted the appeals for hearings, which are yet to start as the lack of senior judges left the appeals pending.
President Zillur Rahman appointed four new judges to the Appellate Division on July 14 this year, raising the total number of judges to an unprecedented 11 in the highest appeals court that has long been hamstrung by the shortage, and cleared the way for the Bangabandhu murder trial among others to see a conclusion.
"Now it depends on the chief counsel for the government to launch the process by fulfilling the pre-requisites," Alam told reporters after addressing a conference in the city.
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni, also attending the conference as the chief guest, said all the laws were in place to try the killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as well as the trial of war criminals.
Of major pending cases in Bangladesh, the Bangaban-dhu murder trial has yet to see a conclusion, 34 years after independence architect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and family members were killed on August 15, 1975, by a group of army officers.
The subsequent administration passed an indemnity ordinance in November 1975, barring trial of the killers.
The Awami League government in 1996 cancelled the indemnity law to clear the way for trial.
Sheikh Mujib's personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed the case with Dhanmondi Police Station that year, 21 years after the murders took place. He named 20 individuals in connection with the case.
In 1998, Dhaka sessions judge Kazi Golam Rasul handed down the death sentence to 15 convicted out of the 20 accused.
The High Court in 2001 stayed the sentences on appeals by five of the convicted, and the sentences remained suspended during the BNP-Jamaat alliance government.
Six years later, in 2007, the Appellate Division admitted the appeals for hearings, which are yet to start as the lack of senior judges left the appeals pending.
President Zillur Rahman appointed four new judges to the Appellate Division on July 14 this year, raising the total number of judges to an unprecedented 11 in the highest appeals court that has long been hamstrung by the shortage, and cleared the way for the Bangabandhu murder trial among others to see a conclusion.