By IANS
Dhaka : Bangladesh’s Supreme Court will Tuesday resume hearings into the 1975 assassination of the country’s founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, after a gap of six years.
The Appellate Division will hear appeals against a Dhaka High Court verdict, delivered in 1998, which handed down death sentences to 12 former army personnel. Only five of the convicted are currently behind bars, one has died, and the rest are still at large.
A three-member bench could not be formed in almost six years as five of the Appellate Division judges either had reservations regarding the case or had heard the case before as high court judges, The Daily Star reported Tuesday.
Three judges of the Appellate Division – Tofazzul Islam, Joynul Abedin and Hassan Ameen – can now hear the Mujib murder case as none of them has heard it before in the high court, Supreme Court registrar Iktedar Ahmed told reporters Monday.
Besides four petitions challenging the high court verdict pending since 2001, a fifth was added in June this year when former army officer A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, who was tried and sentenced in absentia, was repatriated from the US.
The government of Sheikh Hasina, Mujib’s daughter, saw through the trial during its 1996-2001 tenure.
But the course of law was frustrated during the regime of her rival, Begum Khaleda Zia (2001-06).
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members on Aug 15, 1975.
A case was filed on Oct 2, 1996 — 21 years after the killing.
“All formalities for the hearing have been completed. The state also has appointed defence lawyers to stand on behalf of those still at large,” said Ahmed.