Appellate Division upholds death penalty of JMB militant Arif in Jhalakathi judge murder case

​JMB militant Asadul Islam Arif's review petition in the case of murder of two Jhalakathi judges has been rejected by the Appellate Division.

Court CorrespondentSupreme bdnews24.com
Published : 28 August 2016, 05:04 AM
Updated : 28 August 2016, 07:09 AM

Arif will also be hanged like six other top militants of the banned militant outfit including Shayakh Abdur Rahman and Siddikul Islam alias Bangla Bhai before him.
 
A five-member appellate bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha delivered the verdict on Sunday.
 
Advocate N.K Saha represented Arif in court.
 
On Nov 14, 2005, Senior Assistant Judges of Jhalakathi Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Pandey were killed in a bomb attack.
 
The bomber Iftekhar Hossain Mamun, a court employee named Abdul Mannan and milk seller Badshah Mia were also injured in the bombing.
 
A Jhalakathi court on May 29, 2006, sentenced to death seven JMB militants including top leaders Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai and Arif in a case over the murders.
 
The High Court on Aug 31 same year upheld their death sentences.
 
Later, all the convicts except Arif, who was absconding, had moved the Appellate Division challenging the sentence. But the apex court on Nov 28 that year rejected their appeals and also upheld the death sentences.
 
Six of the seven militants were executed on Mar 29, 2007.
 
On Jul 10 that year, Arif was arrested from Mymensingh. Later that year, he had moved the High Court and the Supreme Court challenging the death sentence.
 
But both courts rejected his appeals and upheld the punishment.
 
And now on Sunday, his petition to review the death sentence, the last ditch attempt to save himself from the gallows, was rejected by the apex court.
 
Now the JMB militant has the opportunity to seek presidential clemency. If he does not seek mercy or is denied pardon, the government will order the jail authorities to hang him.​​