Supreme Court ends second day of Bangabandhu case hearing
Thursday, 9 August 2007
The Supreme Court wrapped up the second day of a hearing on a series of appeals in the Bangabandhu murder case Wednesday. The proceedings of the landmark case continue Thursday, reports bdnews24.com.
An Appellate Division bench of Justice Tafazzal Islam, Justice Joynal Abedin and Justice Md Hasan Amin resumed hearing the case proceedings at 9:45am, which continued until 1pm with a 30-minute recess.
At the hearing, death-sentence convict Bazlul Huda's lawyer Nurul Islam Bhuiyan read out pages 936-1055 of the "case paper book". The Bangabandhu murder case "paper book" contains 2,324 pages.
With the hearing over, Islam said "In today's session, I've read out the witness testimonies, especially those relevant to Bazlul Huda's conviction."
The Appellate Division started the first day of the hearing Tuesday on the appeals jargoned as "petitions for leave to appeal" that sought permission to move against the High Court's death sentences handed down in 2001.
The case involves the assassination of the independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with most members of his family on August 15, 1975 at his Dhanmondi home.
His two daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, were spared since they were abroad on the deadly night of the brutal murders.
Some of the killers, however, proclaimed through foreign media that they had killed Bangabandhu and his family members. But the subsequent governments had spared them from being tried for years. Some of them were rewarded with overseas jobs at foreign missions.
A case was filed on October 2, 1996-21 years after the historic killing and it was only after Hasina came to power.
The High Court in 2001 upheld death sentences of 12 convicts in the case but the subsequent legal proceedings remained thwarted after the Khaleda Zia-led four-party coalition came to power in October 2001.
The emergency government finally decided to revive the proceedings, and a three-member special panel of Justice Tafazzal Islam, Justice Joynal Abedin and Justice Md Hasan Amin revived the course of law at 9:18am Tuesday.
They started off with rejecting an appeal moved by a lawyer on behalf of two convicts, Bazlul Huda and Syed Faruque Rahman, for deferral of the hearing.
Twelve of the convicts had their death sentences upheld by the High Court's final verdict on April 30, 2001.
Four of them who are currently in prison filed appeals with the Appellate Division the same year.
They are former army officers: Bazlul Huda, Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed.
An appeal date was originally fixed for the four for August 16, 2001. The appeal hearing was postponed eight times before it was finally dropped from the Appellate Division on March 19, 2002.
AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, another former army officer, filed an appeal through jail authorities on June 24, 2007 following his extradition from the US.
An Appellate Division bench of Justice Tafazzal Islam, Justice Joynal Abedin and Justice Md Hasan Amin resumed hearing the case proceedings at 9:45am, which continued until 1pm with a 30-minute recess.
At the hearing, death-sentence convict Bazlul Huda's lawyer Nurul Islam Bhuiyan read out pages 936-1055 of the "case paper book". The Bangabandhu murder case "paper book" contains 2,324 pages.
With the hearing over, Islam said "In today's session, I've read out the witness testimonies, especially those relevant to Bazlul Huda's conviction."
The Appellate Division started the first day of the hearing Tuesday on the appeals jargoned as "petitions for leave to appeal" that sought permission to move against the High Court's death sentences handed down in 2001.
The case involves the assassination of the independence leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with most members of his family on August 15, 1975 at his Dhanmondi home.
His two daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, were spared since they were abroad on the deadly night of the brutal murders.
Some of the killers, however, proclaimed through foreign media that they had killed Bangabandhu and his family members. But the subsequent governments had spared them from being tried for years. Some of them were rewarded with overseas jobs at foreign missions.
A case was filed on October 2, 1996-21 years after the historic killing and it was only after Hasina came to power.
The High Court in 2001 upheld death sentences of 12 convicts in the case but the subsequent legal proceedings remained thwarted after the Khaleda Zia-led four-party coalition came to power in October 2001.
The emergency government finally decided to revive the proceedings, and a three-member special panel of Justice Tafazzal Islam, Justice Joynal Abedin and Justice Md Hasan Amin revived the course of law at 9:18am Tuesday.
They started off with rejecting an appeal moved by a lawyer on behalf of two convicts, Bazlul Huda and Syed Faruque Rahman, for deferral of the hearing.
Twelve of the convicts had their death sentences upheld by the High Court's final verdict on April 30, 2001.
Four of them who are currently in prison filed appeals with the Appellate Division the same year.
They are former army officers: Bazlul Huda, Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed.
An appeal date was originally fixed for the four for August 16, 2001. The appeal hearing was postponed eight times before it was finally dropped from the Appellate Division on March 19, 2002.
AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, another former army officer, filed an appeal through jail authorities on June 24, 2007 following his extradition from the US.