High Court verdict on death references, appeals of 2005 Gazipur Bar bombing convicts July 28

The High Court will on July 28 give its verdict on death references and appeals of those convicted of murdering four lawyers and four justice-seekers in a bombing incident at the Gazipur Bar Association 11 years ago.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 July 2016, 01:54 PM
Updated : 20 July 2016, 01:54 PM

The bench of Justice M Enayetur and Justice JBM Hassan fixed the date after the hearing of the death references, appeals against death sentences, and jail appeals ended on Wednesday.

Deputy Attorney General Sheikh AKM Moniruzzaman Kabir and Assistant Attorney General Shahidul Islam Khan represented the State.

Kabir later told bdnews24.com that 10 Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) operatives, sentenced to death for the killings, had pleaded guilty.

“We have sought to uphold the death sentences,” he said.

Md Helal Uddin, one of the defence lawyers, said the defence sought reduction of the death sentences to life imprisonment, considering the age of the convicts.

The 10 convicts, all behind bars, are Enayet Ullah, Arifur Rahman, Masidul Islam Masud, Saidur Rahman Munsi, Abdullah Al Sohain, Nizam Uddin Reza, Taibur Rahman Hassan, Md Ashraful Islam, Md Shafiullah Tarek and Adnan Sami Jahangir.

After the verdict in 2013, the death references of the convicts were sent to the High Court for approval the same year.

Four of the convicts had challenged the death penalty, while all 10 filed jail appeals.

According to the case details, JMB activist Azad - also known by many aliases such as Zia, Nazir and Nahid – had exploded two bombs in a suicide attack at Hall-2 of Gazipur District Bar Association office on Nov 29, 2005, after entering the building in a lawyer's gown.

The blasts had killed the association’s General Secretary Amzad Hossain, lawyers Golam Faruque, Nurul Huda and Anwarul Azim and four of their clients.

Police started the case against a number of JMB leaders including Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Ataur Rahman Sani, the suicide attacker and his accomplices.

Two years later, police submitted the chargesheet accusing 15 JMB leaders and operatives.

But the names of Azad and his accomplice Molla Omar Shakil, Rahman, Sani and another top JMB leader, Khaled Saifullah, were dropped as they were all dead by the time formal charges were brought against them.

Six JMB leaders, including Rahman, Sani and Saifullah, accused of abetment in the bombing, were hanged on Mar29, 2007 for murdering two judges in Jhalakathi.

A Gazipur court framed charges against the 10 remaining JMB members accused in the case on Apr 24, 2011.

On Oct 3, the case was transferred to Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 that sentenced them to death in June 2013.

The 10 convicts were arrested between 2005 and 2006.