High Court set to deliver verdict in JU student Zubair murder on Jan 23

The High Court’s verdict in the 2012 killing of Jahangirnagar University student Zubair Ahmed is due on Jan 23.

The final year student was killed in an attack on Jan 8 that year on the campus.

In 2015, the trial court sentenced five people to death and six others to life in prison— all of them activists of the university unit of Bangladesh Chhatra League or BCL, the ruling Awami League’s student affiliate.

On Tuesday, the High Court finished hearing death references and appeals by one of the death-row convicts and five convicts, who were sentenced to life in prison.

Death sentences that trial courts issue are forwarded as death references to the High Court for approval.

Deputy Attorney General Jahid Sarwar said the court has fixed Jan 23 to give its decision.

“Among the five death row convicts Rashedul Islam Raju filed an appeal and the others are absconding,” he told bdnews24.com. One of the six convicts, who received life imprisonment, was a fugitive while the rest challenged the trial court’s verdict.

An English Department student, Zubair was an activist of the BCL. He was hacked to death in an attack that stemmed from an internal feud.

The erstwhile registrar of the university, Hamidur Rahman, filed a case over the murder with Ashulia police.

Following the killing, protests by students and teachers led to the resignation of the then vice-chancellor Professor Sharif Enamul Kabir.

On Apr 8 of the same year, investigation officer Mir Shahin Shah Parvez pressed charges against 13 students of the 37th batch.

The case was transferred to the tribunal in August 2012 after the suspects were indicted.