DHAKA, 24 September 2007 — Bangladesh’s Supreme Court yesterday granted five former army officers sentenced to death for killing the country’s independence leader 32 years ago permission to appeal against their convictions, court officials said.
The then President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and six members of his family were shot dead in their home before dawn, on Aug. 15, 1975, in an army coup.
“The Supreme Court has asked five detained convicts to submit their appeal against a High Court verdict that ordered them to hang, by Oct. 30,” a court registrar said.
The High Court in 2001 ordered 12 former army officers to hang for the murders. Five of them, including one extradited by the United States in June, are now in custody awaiting execution.
Of the remainder, six were believed to be in hiding abroad and were being hunted by Interpol. The 12th ex-officer died in Zimbabwe while on the run a couple years ago, Foreign Ministry officials said.
The trial of the former army officers was ordered only after Mujib’s daughter, Hasina Wajed, became prime minister in 1996. Hasina and her younger sister were out of the country the day the other members of their family were killed.
Mujib was the top leader of the Bengalis in former East Pakistan and helped lead the country during a war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.
The Awami League, one of the country’s two biggest parties that was founded by Mujib more than half a century ago, expressed shock at the decision of the Supreme Court.
“The nation is shocked and frustrated as the Supreme Court granted the self-confessed killers permission to appeal,” Zillur Rahman, acting chief of Awami League, told reporters.”
The convicts are Lt. Col. Syed Farooq Rahman (who was sacked), retired Lt. Col. Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired Lt. Col. Muhiuddin Ahmed, retired Lt. Col. A.K.M. Mahiuddin Ahmed and retired Maj. Bazlul Huda. The Mujibur Rahman murder case remained pending in the highest Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for more than four years.
But Chief Justice Ruhul Amin constituted a three-member bench for hearing the leave-to-appeal petitions of the condemned prisoners this year.
About 21 years after the murders, prosecution took up the case on Oct. 2, 1996, when the first information report was lodged. On Nov. 8, 1998, Dhaka District and Sessions Judge Quazi Golam Rasul sentenced 15 of the 19 accused in the case to death.
More Fishermen Missing
The Chittagong port authority issued an international maritime alert advising all ships and fishing boats to remain in shelters until further notice after more than 100 Bangladeshi fishermen went missing and at least 15 fishing boats sank in a storm in the Bay of Bengal,
Bangladesh’s Meteorological Department said in a special weather bulletin that the monsoonal deep depression, which hit the Bay of Bengal on Thursday night, was moving north-northwest and had reached India’s eastern coastal state of Orissa.
“Maritime ports of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Mongla have been advised to keep the local warning signal hoisted,” the bulletin said.
The latest bulletin said the monsoonal low had crossed the Indian coast near Paradeep yesterday and the weather system was now over Orissa and adjoining areas.
“It is likely to move in a north-northwesterly direction further inland and weaken gradually by giving precipitation,” the bulletin said.
It said squally weather might affect the ports of Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Mongla. Surviving fishermen said they saw several boats sink. In Cox’s Bazar, about 10 fishing boats with nearly 100 fishermen capsized. About 80 fishermen made it back to shore. Officials also warned of flooding, with low-lying areas of several coastal districts, including Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and their offshore islands, likely to be inundated by water surges up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) high, driven by high winds.
