DHAKA, Feb 17, 2021 (BSS) – The High Court (HC) today upheld death sentence for10 people, convicted by the lower court concerned in a case lodged over an attempt to murder Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Kotalipara, Gopalganj, in 2000.
A High Court division virtual bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Badruzzaman pronounced the judgement, dismissing jail appeals filed by the convicts.
The 10 convicts are- Wasim Akter alias Tarek alias Marfot Ali, Rashed Driver alias Abul Kalam alias Rasheduzzaman alias Shimon Khan, Eusuf alias Mosahab Morol alias Abu Musa Harun, Sheikh Farid alias Mawlana alias Osman, Hafez Jahangir Alam Badar, Mawlana Abubakkar alias Hafez Selim Hawlader, Hafez Mowlana Eahia, Mufti Shafikur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hai and Moulana Abdur Roub alias Mufti Abdul Roub alias Abdul Razzak alias Abu Omor.
The court also upheld the life imprisonment of convict Mehedi Hasan alias Abdul Wadud. The lower court had sentenced him to life imprisonment and fined him Taka 10 thousand. He however, did not file any appeal against his conviction.
The court asked the authorities concerned to release convicts, Mofij alias Mohibullah and Anisul alias Anis, who were sentenced to 14-year imprisonment by Dhaka 2nd Speedy Trial Tribunal and are in jail since 2000, saying if they suffered their jail term already according to the jail code and there is no other pending cases against them, they should be set free.
All of them are leaders and activists of banned militant outfit Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji).
The High Court pronounced the summary of the judgement in Bengali in respect to the month of Language Movement.
“By reviewing all the depositions of the witnesses, seized evidences, confessional statements of the accused, we don’t think the tribunal has made any legal mistake in its judgement by sentencing them to death. So, we are accepting the death reference and dismissing the jail and criminal appeals of the convicts,” the court said in its order.
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Deputy Attorney General Dr Md Bashir Ullah and Assistant Attorney General AM Mohammad Shahin Mridha took part in the hearing for the state.
“Prosecution has proved the wide-ranging conspiracy of the convicts to make the country leaderless by killing Sheikh Hasina. They have also confessed their crimes under section 164. We are satisfied with the judgement,” the attorney general said.
Dhaka 2nd Speedy Trial Tribunal on August 20, 2017, sentenced 10 persons to death in the case, as Judge Mamtaz in her order had said the convicts can be executed either by hanging or by shooting, with permission from the High Court.
The lower court had examined 68 witnesses out of the total 83.
According to the case documents, army men recovered a 76-kg powerful bomb on July 22, 2000, from the premises of Sheikh Lutfor Rahman Government Ideal College when a podium was being made for Prime Minister’s rally.
Another powerful bomb was recovered in the area the very next day. Then Kotalipara Police Station sub-inspector Nur Hossain filed a case in this regard on that day.
CID assistant superintendant of police Munshi Atikur Rahman on April 8, 2001, filed charge sheet against Harkat ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and others.
Later the case was transferred to the Dhaka court.
Mufti Hannan has already been executed on April 12, 2017, for 2004 grenade attack at Hazrat Shahjalal (RA) shrine in Sylhet. His name was dropped from Prime Minister murder attempt case.