Bangladesh court upholds death for Mujibur's killers.

Byline: Anisur Rahman 

Dhaka The apex court today upheld death penalties of five ex-army officers in Bangladesh's founder Bangabandhu Shaikh Mujibur Rahman's murder trial, clearing the way for execution of the 12 condemned convicts whose capital punishments were confirmed by the High Court earlier.

Senior judge of the five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court M. Tafazzal Islam delivered the verdict at the heavily guarded and crowded courtroom, rejecting the appeals of the five of the convicts after a prolonged trial.

In line with the judgment, which took 10 minutes to deliver, the 12 ex-army officers would now have to walk to the gallows for murdering Bangabandhu, the founder of modern Bangladesh and father of current Prime Minister Shaikh Hasina, lawyers said.

Justice Islam said the Appellate Division upheld the judgment of the High Court that earlier confirmed the capital punishment of the 12 coup leaders.

"The appellants [five convicts] having failed to make out a case of extenuating circumstance to commute their sentence of death, we are not inclined to interfere with the sentence of death awarded to the appellants by the learned sessions judge [of the trial court] and maintained by the High Court Division," he said.

Convicts

Of the 12 convicts, the five who are now in jail filed the appeals while the final judgment came after 29 days of hearing on their prayers while the six others could not take the opportunity as they were on the run abroad and one died in Zimbabwe.

The judgment came amid an unprecedented security vigil at the country's important installations including the Supreme Court complex with senior government leaders fearing subversive activities in the run up to the judgment.

The five convicts are sacked lieutenant colonels Syed Faruq Rahman, Sultan Shariar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmad (artillery) and AKM Mohiuddin and sacked major Bazlul Huda.

"We have got justice," chief state lawyer in the case Anisul Haque said after the verdict.

The verdict came following a protracted legal process of 13 years and 34 years after the assassination of Shaikh Mujib along with most of his family members u his wife, three sons and two daughters-in-law.

A total of 28 people, including domestic staff, were killed when a group of junior army officers stormed the Bangabandhu's private residence in a pre-dawn swoop that also toppled his post independence Awami League government while Hasina and her younger sister Shaikh Rehana survived the putsch as they were abroad.

But the trial started only when the party under Hasina's leadership returned to power in 1996 general elections after 21 years in the political wilderness and scrapped an indemnity law which was enacted by the post 1975 governments to protect the killers.

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