Lutfa Taher's petition hearing begins

Dhaka, Jan 10 (bdnews24.com) — The High Court has begun hearing a petition challenging the legality of Col M A Taher's execution by a military court in 1976.

The hearing began at the bench of justices A H M Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Sheikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain on Monday.

Shahdin Malik, head of BRAC University's law department argued for the petitioner while attorney general Mahbubey Alam stood for the state.

The same High Court bench on Jan 6 adjourned the hearing till Jan 10 in response to an appeal from the state seeking more time. The attorney general had made the appeal to prepare for the hearing of this writ petition.

Earlier the High Court on Dec 13, 2009 adjourned the hearing till Jan 6 in response to another government appeal.

The government was ordered on Aug 23 to produce records Taher's trial within three weeks.

The order came in response to a petition filed by the wife and brother of the freedom fighter who led sector 11 in Bangladesh's Liberation War.

The High Court also directed the government to explain why Martial Law Regulation No.16 of 1976, under which Taher was tried for sedition and executed 34 years ago, should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.

It asked the government to explain why the orders of the special martial law tribunal in which Taher, along with 16 others, were convicted should not be adjudged illegal. It also sought explanation why the then government's actions following the court's order should not be declared unlawful.

Secretaries of the law, Liberation War affairs, defence and home ministries, the inspector general (prisons) and superintendent of Dhaka Central Jail were asked to come up with the answers within three weeks.

Taher's wife Lutfa Taher, his brother Anwar Hossain, and Fatema Yousuf, the wife of Yousuf Ali Khan, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a secret trail on July 17, 1976, jointly filed the petition.

The petition says Taher and 16 other politicians and freedom fighters were tried in secret inside the Dhaka Central Jail on July 17, 1976.

Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem was the president and Ziaur Rahman the chief martial law administrator of Bangladesh at that time.

The government, which executed Taher on July 21, 1976, did not disclose anything about the trial proceedings, charges against the accused or the execution.

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