HC declares Taher trial illegal

After 35 long years, the High Court rules Col Taher's secret court martial null and void.

The High Court has said Col Taher's execution was a cold-blooded murder given the shape of a trial as per Ziaur Rahman's plan.

In its verdict on the writ petitions challenging Taher's trial, the court on Tuesday asked the government to consider him as a martyr and file a case against the judge of the military tribunal, which had ordered his hanging.

The bench of justices A H M Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Sheikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain also asked the government to consider paying compensation to the victims of the trial terming it illegal.

The court said many of the punished should get pensions as they were removed by the trial from their posts in the then army and government.

The bench also ordered the government to find out whether Ziaur Rahman had any connection with the murder of independence architect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"Unfortunately, Maj Gen Zia is not alive to be accused in the [Taher] murder case. But his associate and the tribunal judge Abdul Ali is alive," it stated.

Terming the entire trial a drama, the High Court declared the formation of the fake tribunal for the trial, the process of the trial and the punishments illegal and invalid.

"Death sentence had not been included in the law, under which Taher was awarded death sentence. It was included on July 31 1976, after Taher had been hung. So, the verdict was illegal," it said.

"Besides, the tribunal had no case detail, charge-sheet or any other document in front of it, according to tribunal judge Abdul Ali," it added.

Quoting Ali, the bench said, "The accused did not even know the charges against them. They had no lawyers too."

"In the light of all this, the trial is contradictory to the articles 27, 29, 30, 32, 33 and 35 of the constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," it said.

The court ordered the government to omit the names of the accused from every document where they were mentioned as seditious people.

"Taher and the other accused faced death and other punishments, as they were the targets of Zia's anger. They obstructed instead of assisting him to establish autocracy," the court observed.

It also ordered to consider Hasanul Haque Inu, Mahmudur Rahman Manna, Maj Ziauddin and others punished that time as patriots.

Bangladesh politics saw a spell of military uprising and counter-uprising immediately after the assassination of independence architect Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, along with his family members, on Aug 15 1975.

On Nov 7, 1975, Taher orchestrated a socialist uprising amongst the soldiers and freed the then chief of army staff Ziaur Rahman from house-arrest. He also fuelled Zia's consolidation of power as deputy chief martial law administrator.

However, only 17 days after the takeover by Zia, Taher was arrested. A total of 33 people, including him, were tried in a secret court martial inside Dhaka Central Jail on June 17, 1976.

Of them 16 were released, while 17 were handed down various sentences. Three of them, including Taher, were sentenced to death. However, the death verdicts of the other two were later reduced to life imprisonment.

Taher, a Liberation War sector commander, was executed on July 21, 1976, four days after the military court order.

Taher's wife, Lutfa, his brother Anwar Hossain, incumbent president of Dhaka University Teachers' Association, and Anwar's wife jointly filed a petition challenging the legality of the court martial on Aug 23 last year.
Fatema Yusuf, wife of Ft Sgt Yusuf Ali Khan, who was sentenced to life in the same trial, filed another petition, while family members of two other victims filed two different petitions in this regard.

The High Court summoned the records of the trial following the filing of writ petitions.

The court also directed the government to explain why Martial Law Regulation No. 16 of 1976, under which Taher was tried for sedition charges and executed 35 years ago, should not be declared illegal and unconstitutional.

The court heard the opinions of a number of lawyers as amici curiae during the hearing on the writ petitions.

Those lawyers were Kamal Hossain, M Ameer-ul-Islam, M Zahir, Yusuf Hossain Humayun, Akhter Imam, A F M Mejbahuddin, Abdul Matin Khasru, Z I Khan Panna and M I Farooque.

Earlier, Lawrence Lifschultz, a former South Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review, who had been in Dhaka during Taher's trial in 1976, S M Shawkat Ali, the then deputy commissioner of Dhaka, and current DC Mohammad Mohibul Haque recorded their statements in the court.

Besides, Maj Gen (retd) Nurul Islam Shishu sent his written statement from the US.

STIGMA REMOVED

After the verdict, Taher's wife Lutfa Taher said the treason charge levelled against her husband had been removed after 35 long years.

"Taher was considered a traitor for the 35 years. As his wife, I had to endure the pain of the false allegation. The court verdict proved today that Taher was a great patriot and dignified man," Lutfa told the press.

"I never believed the allegation brought against Taher, not even for a moment. I have been waiting for this day for 35 years," she added.

Brother of Col Taher Mohammad Anwar Hossain, president of the Dhaka University Teachers Association, said it was not only them, but also the people of Bangladesh, who had been waiting for this day.

"This historic verdict has put an end to that long wait," he added.