Hearing on Mujib killers’ review petitions concludes

DHAKA - Bangladesh’s Supreme Court Tuesday concluded the hearing on the review petitions filed by five former army officers who are lodged in prison over the killing of country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The petitions were against the court’s verdict confirming their death sentence.

After concluding the hearing Tuesday, the four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Md Tafazzul Islam, said they would pronounce their verdict Wednesday.

During the three-day hearing, counsels for the convicts, the chief state counsel in the Rahman murder case and the attorney general placed their arguments before the apex court, The Daily Star reported.

Advocate Khan Saifur Rahman, counsel for Syed Farooq Rahman and Mohiuddin Ahmed, concluded his arguments saying the incident of Aug 15, 1975 was a result of mutiny of army and this case should be tried under the military act.

Chief state counsel Anisul Huq opposed the review petition.

“There is no scope to review the verdict,” he was quoted as saying.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members were killed in a putsch led by serving and former army officers Aug 15, 1975.

On Nov 19 last year, the apex court confirmed death sentences to a dozen ex-army personnel, including the five who have been detained.

Of the seven others, one died and six are on the run. The government has moved the Interpol and the governments in the US, Canada, Libya and Pakistan to get their custody.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is Mujibur Rahman’s daughter, has ignored a plea by Amnesty International, a US-based human rights watchdog that the death sentences be converted into life imprisonment.