DHAKA, 2 September 2006 — All legal barriers to the execution of seven Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) extremists were removed Thursday when the High Court upheld their death sentences passed by a court in Jhalakati district.
Sheikh Abdur Rahman, the founder of the Islamic outfit, and his deputy Bangla Bhai were among the seven who were given death sentences for their role in carrying out a suicide bomb attack on two district judges in southern Bangladesh on Nov. 14, 2005.
The two judges, Sohail Ahmad and Jagannath Pandey, were fatally wounded in the blast that occurred as they were traveling to office in a car in Jhalakati town. Both Abdur Rahman and Bangla Bhai admitted to masterminding the assassinations.
“The prosecution proved the case without reasonable doubt,” said Mohammad Ali Asgar Khan, one of the High Court justices sitting on the bench.
The five other militants sent to the gallows by the lower court after their arrest three months ago were Ataur Rahman Sunny, Abdul Awal, Khalid Saifullah, Asadul Islam Arif and Iftekhar Hassan Mamun, court officers said. Only Mamun filed an appeal against the trial court judgment. The other convicted men said only an Islamic court set up under the Shariah was competent to try them.
The Bangladeshi law does not permit the implementation of death sentences handed down by lower courts without a review of the judgment by the High Court.
Legal experts said that as the condemned JMB militants did not make any appeal against the High Court’s confirmation, all legal barriers to the execution of the death sentences had now been crossed. If they do not seek mercy from President Iajuddin Ahmed , the condemned will have to walk to the gallows.
