Khalaf murder: SC grants leave to appeal against HC verdict

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted leave-to-appeal filed by the state seeking to nullify a High Court verdict that had sentenced death penalty to one and life imprisonment to 3 others in the sensational Saudi Embassy official Khalaf Al Ali murder case. A 5-member Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice Md Muzzammel Hossain, passed the order after hearing. On December 30, 2012, the Speedy Trial Tribunal-4, Dhaka, awarded death penalty to five people – Md Al Amin, Saiful Islam alias Mamun, Rafiqul Islam Khokon, Akbar Ali Lalu alias Rony and Selim Chowdhury – in the Khalaf murder case. But on November 18, 2013, the designated death reference HC bench while resolving the case along with the appeals upheld the death penalty of Saiful Islam only, commuting the capital punishment to life imprisonment to Al Amin, Akbar Ali and Rafiqul Islam and acquitting Selim Chowdhury. Emerging from the court, Additional Attorney General Murad Reza told reporters that following the apex court order the regular appeal would be heard in due course. The state had filed the leave petition seeking the revival of the trial court sentences as it considers the HC verdict inadequate, he added. Khalaf, an official at the consular section of the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka, was gunned down near his residence in the capital’s Gulshan diplomatic enclave on the night of March 6, 2012, according to UNB.