Following the High Court's verdict in the August 21 grenade attack case, Advocate Mohammad Shishir Manir, defence lawyer for three of the accused, on Sunday said the trial court's proceedings were termed unlawful in the judgment.
"The trial court delivered the judgement wrongfully, because innocent individuals were made accused politically, excluding the real accused. As a result, the real accused escaped from the list of accused of the case. Those who have been made accused including Tarique Rahman, Lutfozzaman Babar and Abdus Salam Pintu were made political opponents. It should not be done by any government," he said.
According to Shishir Manir, the families of those who were killed and injured in August 21 grenade attack, ought to file cases against the real accused.
He said the High Court in the observation of its ruling said the witnesses narrated the incident, but none of them mentioned who had thrown the grenades.
Besides, any of the investigation officers (IOs) didn't mention in their chargesheet who had supplied the grenades on August 21.
BNP lawyer and the party's legal affairs secretary Barrister Kaiser Kamal said a total of four chargesheets were submitted in the case. Tarique Rahman's name was not three in the first three charge-sheets. After coming to power, Sheikh Hasina ordered inclusion of Tarique Rahman's name in the 4th chargesheet.
"It has been proved today that the chargesheet was unlawful. So, those whose names were in the chargesheet got acquitted from the case," he said.
He said those who were convicted in the case and then appealed against the judgement or didn't appeal, all have been acquitted from the case.
Barrister Kaiser Kamal further said, "Tarique Rahman has received justice. It has been proved that Tarique Rahman was convicted being completely politically motivated. Today, he has been acquitted from the case through a legal battle."
Earlier in the day, the High Court annulled the trial court's proceedings based on a supplementary charge sheet and declared the trial illegal.
The High Court dismissed the death references and granted the appeals of the accused, leading to the acquittal of all convicted individuals. As a result, BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, and other convicts have been acquitted.
The High Court bench, comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain, delivered the ruling.
Following the ruling, Shishir Manir told reporters that the trial court had sentenced 49 individuals. Of them, 19 were sentenced to death, 19 to life imprisonment and others to different prison terms.
"The High Court has granted all appeals and annulled the death references. All accused have been acquitted."
He emphasized flaws in the original judgment, noting inconsistencies among witness testimonies and the reliance on hearsay evidence.
Furthermore, the lawyer said confessional statements had been obtained under duress.
"Mufti Hannan gave two confessional statements. There is no precedent for sentencing based on a second confession. He later retracted this confession, rendering it legally invalid. The second charge sheet was submitted to the trial court, which accepted it. However, according to the law, it does not have the authority to do so. Consequently, the High Court declared the sentencing based on this charge sheet unlawful."
Previously, the same High Court bench concluded the hearing on the death references and appeals of the accused on November 21, reserving the case for a verdict.
The grenade attack occurred on August 21, 2004 on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.
The Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 on October 10, 2018 delivered its judgment in the murder and explosives cases filed over the incident.
In that verdict, 19 individuals, including former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and former deputy minister for education Abdus Salam Pintu, were sentenced to death.
Tarique Rahman and 18 others were sentenced to life imprisonment, while 11 individuals were handed various prison terms and fines.
Following the 2018 judgment, the case documents, along with the trial court's verdict, were sent to the High Court for review, where it was registered as a death reference case.
