In a landmark judgement, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court verdict in the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case confirming capital punishment of 12 mid-level ex-army officers.The unanimous historic judgment was delivered at 11.55 am in the jam-packed room of the court number one by a special bench of the SC Appellate Division comprising Justice Md Tafazzul Islam, Justice Md Abdul Aziz, Justice BK Das, Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and Justice SK Sinha. All the five judges unanimously endorsed the short order of the highest court dismissing all the appeals filed by the condemned prisoners. The court also vacated its stay on the execution of the capital punishment. "We are of the view that it is not a case of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny rather a criminal conspiracy to commit the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family," the judges said in the crucial verdict. Dismissing the defence claim, the court held that there was no legal evidence on record to come to the conclusion that the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family, including the three security personnel, had been committed as a consequence of a mutiny."The nation finally got justice," Chief Counsel for the state Advocate Anisul Huq told the media soon after the verdict.Later at a press briefing, he said the court had received appeals from the convicts for hearing on five specific points and accepted the prosecution's deliberations on each point and rejected the presentations of the defence counsel."The court in its verdict said the defence could not present any point that might help commute the penalty of the convicts. So, the court has upheld the ruling of the High Court," he added. Defence counsel Abdullah Al Mamun told the media that they would file a review petition on the rejection of the appeals after getting the certified copy of the Supreme Court judgment.As per rules the petition will have to be submitted within 30 days to the Appellate Division, he added.The judgement followed 29 days of hearing from both the prosecution and defence sides on the appeals filed by five of the 12 ex-army officers whose death sentence was confirmed by the high court in a verdict handed down on April 30,2001.Though the court room was full to the brim with a large number of lawyers, media men, family members of Bangabandhu and others, pin drop silence prevailed there.All the judges headed by Justice Md. Tafazzul Islam entered the court room at 11.45 am. Soon after entering the courtroom, Justice Md. Tafazzul Islam started reading out the judgement and left the room along with other justices as soon as the reading of the judgement was completed at 11.54 am.Yesterday's verdict set at rest all speculations about the fate of the 12 condemned to death ex-army officers. It led to jubilation among the people by and large and family members of the Bangabandhu family, but there was gloom among the family of the convicted men and their sympathisers.The 12 ex-army officers to be sent to the gallows are: Lt Col (sacked) Syed Faruque Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Lt Col (retd) Muhiuddin Ahmed, Lt Col (retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda Lt Col Khandakar Abdur Rashid, Lt Col Shariful Huq Dalim, Lt Col S H M B Noor Chowdhury, Risaldar Moslemuddin Khan, Lt Col A.M. Rashed Chowdhury and Capt Abdul Majed killer Lt Col (retd) Md Abdul Aziz Pasha.Of them, five convicts are now behind bars in the country. They are: Lt Col (sacked) Syed Faruque Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Lt Col (retd) Muhiuddin Ahmed, Lt Col (retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda. They filed the appeals in the apex court in October, 2007 against their convictions and death sentences by a lower court.The six other condemned killers now hiding abroad are: Col (retd) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Maj (retd) Shariful Huq Dalim, Lt Col (retd) AM Rashed Chowdhury, Lt Col (retd) SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Capt (retd) Abdul Majed and Risaldar (retd) Moslemuddin. The other fugitive killer, Lt Col (retd) Md Abdul Aziz Pasha, died earlier in Zimbabwe.The appellate division in its verdict said that it considered five points while granting the leave to appeal by the petitioners. It gave the following opinions on these five points; " a) Sections 378 and 429 of the Code of Criminal Procedure contemplate that it is for the third learned Judge to decide on what points he shall hear arguments, if any, and, that postulates that he is completely free in resolving the difference as he thinks fit, and therefore, the third learned Judge was competent to decide the case of six convicts of whom the learned judges were equally divided in their opinion and thus the third learned Judge was in agreement with the decision of the learned Judges of the Division Bench in respect of 9 convicts of whom there was no difference of opinion.b) The learned Sessions Judge as well as the learned Judges of the High Court Division have believed the explanation given by the prosecution regarding the delay in lodging the First Information Report on assessment of the evidence on record; this finding being a concurrent finding of fact, in our view, does not call for any interference.c) An offence of murder has been included in Section 59(2) of the Army Act, 1952, triable under the Army Act, subject to the condition that if the offender commits the said offence while in 'active service, but as the appellants were not in 'active service' within the meaning of section 8(1) of the Army Act, their trial.. by an ordinary criminal court is not barred by the provisions of the Army Act, and secondly, even if it is assumed that it is a 'civil offence' within the meaning of Section 8(2) of the Army Act, there is no legal bar for the trial of such offence in view of Section 94 of the said Act.d) There is no legal evidence on record to come to the conclusion that the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family, including the three security personnel was committed as a consequence of a mutiny. We are of the view that it is not a case of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny, rather it is a criminal conspiracy to commit the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family. e) The learned judges of the High Court Division having believed that the prosecution has been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt the charge of murder against the appellants and other convicts by adducing reliable evidence, and the appellants having failed to make out a case that the High Court Division has caused a grave substantial injustice or a miscarriage of justice in accepting the death reference so far as it relates to the appellants without proper evaluation and sifting of evidence, we find no cogent ground to interfere with the impugned judgment and order of the High Court Division. (f) The appellants 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 and maintained by the High Court Division. In the premises, Criminal Appeal Nos. 55-59 of 2007 with Jail Appeal No .2 of 2007 with Criminal Misc. Petition No. 8 of 2001 with Criminal Review Petition No. 3 of 2000 are hereby dismissed.The order of stay passed by this court is hereby vacated. This short order shall form part of the judgment".Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, architect of independent Bangladesh, was assassinated along with most of his family members on the fateful night of August 15, 1975. But none was allowed to file a case immediately after the assassination of the Bangabandhu. The government of Khandker Mustaque Ahmed that was installed after the bloody military coup passed an ordinance in November that year indemnifying the perpetrators and closing the door on the possibility of a trial. The Awami League government revoked the indemnity ordinance in 1996 and cleared the way for trial. Then, President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed a case on October 2, 1996 in the Dhanmondi police station against 24 persons. The charge sheet was submitted against 20 persons.On November 8, 1998 Kazi Gulam Rasul, a District and Sessions Court judge of Dhaka, sentenced to death by a firing squad in public 15 former Army officers, 23 years after the country's founding father was assassinated in a military coup that overthrew Bangladesh's first Government. Mujibur Rahman was brutally murdered along with 17 others.The condemned were Lt Col (dismissed) Syed Farooq-ur Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Lt Col (retd) Muhiuddin Ahmed, Lt Col (retd) AKM Mahiuddin Ahmed, Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda, Lt Col (retd) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Maj (retd) Shariful Haque Dalim, Maj (retd) Ahmed Shariful Hossain, Lt Col (retd) AM Rashed Chowdhury, Lt Col (retd) SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Lt Col (retd) Md Abdul Aziz Pasha, Capt (retd) Md Kismat Hashem, Capt (retd) Nazmul Hossain Ansar, Capt (retd) Abdul Mazed, and Risaldar (retd) Moslemuddin.While handing down the verdict, Kazi Golam Rasul acquitted four of the accused, giving them the benefit of the doubt. They included one of the prime accused, Taherussin Thakur, former Information Minister and the lone civilian among the accused. Another civilian who was among the accused, Zobaida Rashid, wife of Lt. Col. Khandaker Abdur Rashid, had been acquitted of the charges against her by the Supreme Court at an early stage of the case.In his verdict Kazi Golam Rasul observed that the proceedings in the case progressed according to the due process of law. For its part, the government scrupulously adhered to the due process of law and provided the accused, including the absconders, opportunities to defend themselves. The Government did this despite the fact that in a case like this it could have formed a special tribunal, which could have tried and sentenced the accused in a much shorter span of time. In fact, the government even appointed lawyers for the accused persons who were absconding, he observed. The judgment said: "After the incident, some of the accused also boasted, identifying themselves as 'self-confessed killers' at home and abroad." 'The incident,' it added, "was not only brutal, but also marked the ruthless shooting of two newly married women and a 10-year-old child," the judgement said.The historic verdict, which was delivered after 17 months of hearings, came at the end of an agonising trial on November 8, 1998. Later, a division bench of the High Court comprising Justice Md Ruhul Amin and Justice ABM Khairul Haque on December 14, 2000, delivered split verdicts on the death reference appeals in the case.First judge Justice Md Ruhul Amin upheld the death sentences of 10 and acquitted five -- Muhiuddin Ahmed, Ahmed Shariful Hossain, Md Kismat Hashem, Nazmul Hossain Ansar and Moslemuddin.Second judge Justice ABM Khairul Haque upheld the death sentences of all the 15 convicts.On April 30, 2001, the third HC bench of Justice Md Fazlul Karim confirmed capital punishment against 12 and acquitted three others. He delivered the final High Court verdict in the case on April 30, 2001, affirming the convictions and death sentences of 12 of the 15 defendants. The three that he acquitted are Md Kismat Hashem, Ahmed Shariful Hossain, and Nazmul Hossain Ansar.On September 23, 2007, a three-judge special bench of the Appellate Division comprising Justice Md Tafazzul Islam, Justice Md Joynul Abedin, and Justice Md Hassan Ameen granted leave to appeal petitions filed by the five convicts.The five-convicts, Major Md. Bazlul Huda, Lt. Col. Syed Faruque Rahman, Lt. Col. Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Lt. Col. Mohiuddin (Artillery) and Major A.K.M.Mohiuddin Ahmed (Lancer) filed five leave-to-appeal petitions with the Appellate Division against the HC order in October 2007.On October 5, the Appellate Division started hearing the appeals on five points -- whether Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed along with most of his family members as a result of a mutiny, whether the evidences adduced by several witnesses are contradictory, whether delay in filing the First Information Report (FIR) was reasonable as held by the lower court, whether there was any conspiracy behind this murder, and whether disposal of the death references of six accused persons out of 15 by the third judge in the High Court was correct and legal.After a total of 29 day-long hearing, the apex court delivered the landmark verdict yesterday.Agencies add: The verdict came following a protracted legal process of 13 years and 34 years after the assassination of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members - 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 at Dhaka's Dhanmandi area in a pre-dawn swoop that also toppled his post- independence Awami League government while Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana survived the putsch as they were abroad at that time.But the delayed trial started only when the party under Sheikh Hasina's leadership returned to power in the 1996 general elections after 21 years in the political wilderness and scrapped an indemnity law which was enacted by the post-1975 government to protect the killers.The subsequent governments also had rewarded the killers with diplomatic assignments abroad or allowed them to float political parties. Later speaking at a crowded press briefing, Anisul Haque said the five got the opportunity to file the leave to appeal against their death sentences but the others were unlikely to get the chance and, therefore, directly would walk to the gallows if they could be arrested.He said according to the constitution the five convicts were entitled to an opportunity to seek a review of the verdict at the Appellate Division itself within 30 days, and if rejected they would have a last chance to seek Presidential clemency within the subsequent seven days.According to the Jail Code, on exhaustion of these processes, the condemned convicts would be hanged in between 21 and 28 days on receipt of the copy of the verdict by the jail authorities.Attorney general Mahbub-e-Alam later, however, said the apex court could give the fugitives scope to file leave to appeal petitions if they surrendered or brought to justice after their arrest, if they could justify the delay in filing the appeals.The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court began the final appeal hearing on October 5, eight and half years after the High Court verdict and two years after it granted the leave to appeal prayers by five of the convicts.The case has long been pending for want of necessary number of "competent" judges as several of the incumbent apex court justices earlier were involved in the case during its High Court stage hearing while the past Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) regime of ex-prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia made no attempt for its disposal by appointing extra judges. President Zillur Rahman appointed four judges at the apex court in July removing the bar.Of the convicts, three - sacked lieutenant colonels Syed Faruq Rahman, Sultan Shahriyar Rashid Khan, Mahiuddin Ahmed (artillery)-- faced the trial in person at the lower court while two others-sacked major Bazlul Huda and sacked AKM Mohiuddin (lancer), were returned from Thailand and the United States at different times afterwards and they are now in jail.State lawyers came out flashing the V-sign as scores of supporters of the ruling Awami League shouted slogans in and outside the court premises demanding execution of the verdict. Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, counsel for appellant Huda and Mohiuddin (Lancer), told the media that the petition for review depends on the advice of his clients. Advocate Abdur Razzaque Khan, counsel for Shahriar, declined to make any comment on the judgment. Khan Saifur Rahman, counsel for Faruque and Muhiuddin (Artillery), was not available in the court precincts to hear about the fate of his clients.Senior advocate Anisul Huq conducted the case as chief state counsel with the rank and status of Attorney-General. He was assisted by Attorney-General Mahbubey Alam and his nine deputies and barrister Ajmalul Hossain QC, Tawfique Nawaz, ex-law minister Abdul Matin Khasru, MP, barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Tapash, Yusuf Hossain Humayun, SC Bar Association President AFM Mesbahuddin and secretary SM Rezaul Karim, Abu Zafar Siddiqui, Rabiul Alam Budu, Momtaz Uddin Mehdi, Mosharraf Hossain Kazal and Jahangir Hossain Selim.
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