Tuesday | 8 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Tuesday | 8 October 2024 | Epaper

HC begins reading verdict on BDR mutiny

Published : Sunday, 26 November, 2017 at 11:57 AM  Count : 576
Observer Online Report
The High Court began to deliver its verdict on death references of 152 people convicted of killings during the 2009 BDR mutiny and their appeals against the capital punishment on Sunday.
 
The bench of Justice Md Shawkat Hossain, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique and Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder started delivering verdict at 10:55am on Sunday.

bdnews24.com adds : The court will also issue the verdict on the state's appeal for increasing prison terms to those sentenced to different time periods and against the release of 194.

The bench heard the death references, and appeals for more than a year and put the case up for the verdict on Apr 13.

Death sentences issued by the trial court are forwarded as death references for the High Court's approval.

The Supreme Court announced the final date of the verdict on its website on Nov 12.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, Additional Attorneys General Murad Reza, Momtaz Uddin Fakir and Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, and Deputy Attorneys General Mosharraf Hossain Sardar, Sheikh Baharul Islam and Zahid Sarwar Kajal stood for the State in the hearing of the death references and appeals. Hasna Begum was the lawyer appointed by the State for the case.  

Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, Abdul Baset Majumder, Mohsin Rashid, SM Shahjahan, ASM Abdul Mubin, Md Aminul Islam, Daudur Rahman Mina, and Shamim Sarder were among the lawyers for the accused.

In November 2013, a special court of an additional metropolitan sessions judge awarded the death penalty to 152 jawans and non-commissioned officer of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles or BDR for the 2009 Peelkhana mutiny massacre.

The court sentenced 161 others to life in prison and 256 to three to 10 years in jail. It acquitted 277.

Never before had so many accused, 850 in total, been tried in a single case in the history of Bangladesh.

Four of the accused died during the trial while BNP leader Nasir Uddin Ahmed Pintu died after conviction.

Seventy-four people, including 57 army officers, who were posted in the paramilitary border guard force, were killed in the Feb 25-26 mutiny in 2009.

The mutiny in the force, a month after a new government took office, sent shock waves across Bangladesh and to the rest of the world.

When the High Court put the case up for the verdict on Apr 13, Attorney General Alam said, "Some of the accused should have been sentenced to death, but they were not awarded the capital punishment."

He said the State appealed for increasing punishment of some of the accused and against the acquittal of some others.

"It can't be said whether all the death sentences will hold. The court will check if every one of them was involved in the killings," he said.

Aminul, one of the main lawyers for the accused, said, "The State failed to present sufficient witnesses and evidence to prove the charges against the accused. So I hope most of them will be acquitted."

SU/LY
 
Your choice


LATEST NEWS
MOST READ
Also read
Tourists gather en masse in Cox's Bazar on New Year's Eve
RU Political Sc dept chairman to resign
Textbook Festival Monday
76 political parties seek EC registration
11 including 3 RU teachers injured over cricket
Law enforcers ‘collaborators’ of ruling party ‘cadres’, says BNP
Let’s build a ‘Golden Bengal’, says PM
No new tax in 2018, says Muhith
Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Online: 41053014; Advertisement: 41053012.
E-mail: info©dailyobserverbd.com, news©dailyobserverbd.com, advertisement©dailyobserverbd.com, For Online Edition: mailobserverbd©gmail.com
🔝