Ten sentenced to death over assassination plot against Sheikh Hasina

A Dhaka court has sentenced 10 people to death over a plot to kill Sheikh Hasina in Gopalganj, 17 years ago .

Court Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 20 August 2017, 06:14 AM
Updated : 20 August 2017, 11:57 AM

The Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-2 also imprisoned 13 in verdicts issued on the Special Powers Act case and the explosives case on Sunday.

Twenty-five suspects had been accused in the Special Powers Act case.

Ten people were sentenced to death, one was sentenced to life in prison and fined Tk 10,000, three received a 14-year prison term and a Tk 10,000 fine (failure to pay the fine will be punished with an additional year in jail), ten others were acquitted.

The twenty-fifth suspect, Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami chief Mufti Hannan has already been executed over another case.

Fourteen were accused in the explosives case. Nine received 20 years in prison and were fined Tk 20,000 each, while four were acquitted.

Mufti Hannan was the fourteenth suspect in the case.

On Jul 20 of 2000, police found two 76-kilogram bombs in a school field at the district's Kotalipara Upazila where Hasina, on her first term as prime minister, was scheduled to address an election campaign rally.

Eight of the accused are in prison, one has been granted bail while 15 others are fugitives, said defence lawyer Faruk Ahammad.

The court has heard 63 witnesses in the case for attempted murder, said special state counsel Syed Shamsul Haque Badal. Thirty-nine people have testified in the case filed under the Explosives Act, he said.

Seven of the accused gave statements to court under Section 164 of the CrPC, which can be used as evidence in the trial.

The bombs were discovered while a stage for the rally was being set up on the Sheikh Lutfur Rahman College ground in Kotalipara, the electoral constituency of the Awami League chief.

Hasina was scheduled to address the rally two days later.