Mujib murder case appeals

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on Thursday posted for November 19 the judgment on the appeals of five death-row convicts against a High Court verdict that had upheld the death sentences of the five and seven others. A trial court in 1998 sentenced 15, out of the 20 accused in the Mujib murder case, and the High Court in 2001 upheld the death sentences of 12 former army personnel on charges of killing the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of the family on August 15, 1975. The five-member Appellate Division bench, presided over by Justice Tafazzul Islam, set the date after hearing in the appeals for 29 days. The court started the hearing on October 5. On the closing day of the hearing, Khan Saifur Rahman, counsel for Faruque Rahman and AKM Muhiuddin Ahmed, and Abdur Razzaque Khan, counsel for Sultan Shahriar, rebutted the state arguments. After the completion of hearing from the defence, the attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, expressed his gratitude to the court for giving a patient hearing with utmost satisfaction of both the defence and the state counsel. ‘We all have become part of history getting to be associated with the historic case,’ the chief state law officer said in his valedictory statement as the countdown for the judgment began. On August 24, the Appellate Division chamber judge, Justice Mohammad Muzammel Hossain, posted for October 5 the hearing in a plea filed by Anisul Huq, the chief prosecutor of the case, seeking a short date for final hearing in the case. The chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, on October 4 instituted the special bench, headed by Justice M Tafazzul Islam, to resume the hearing. Other members on the bench are Justice Md Abdul Aziz, Justice BK Das, Justice Muzammel Hossain and Justice SK Sinha. The case was being delayed for hearing because of shortage of judges in the Appellate Division. But as soon as four new judges were elevated to the Appellate Division in July, the government moved for an expeditious hearing in the appeals. The government on August 23 submitted the summary of its arguments in the Mujib murder case to the Appellate Division. The Appellate Division bench of Justice Tafazzul Islam, Justice Joynul Abedin and Justice M Hassan Ameen on September 23, 2007 allowed the five death-row convicts to appeal against the High Court verdict, delivered in 2001, on five points. The five points are whether the August 15, 1975 killing was part of a mutiny in the army, whether a civilian court could try army men, whether the delay of about 21 years in filing the first information report of the case was justified under law, whether the charge of conspiracy was established by proper investigation and evidence and whether the case suffered disjointed deposition of witnesses. Accusing the government of delaying the hearing in the appeals by about two years, defence lawyer Abdullah Al Mamun said they had submitted the summary of the arguments in October 2007, but the government submitted the summery of its arguments on August 23, 2009, causing a delay in the hearing. The Dhaka district and sessions judge, Quazi Golam Rasul, on November 8, 1998 sentenced 15 of the 20 accused to death for killing Mujib and all but two of the family. Mujib’s personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed a murder case with the Dhanmondi police on October 2, 1996, about 21 years after the killing. The High Court on December 14, 2000 delivered a split verdict in the case. Justice M Ruhul Amin, senior judge of the High Court bench, upheld the death sentences of 10 convicts while the other judge, ABM Khairul Haque, retained the death sentences for all the 15. On April 30, 2001, Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim in the final High Court verdict in the case upheld the death sentences of 12 and acquitted three others. Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Muhiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda, who were in jail at the time, filed petitions with the Appellate Division seeking permission to appeal against the verdict. AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed filed a similar petition after the US government had deported him to Bangladesh from Los Angeles on June 17, 2007. The prosecution in their arguments said the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not an act of mutiny but of murder as only Sheikh Mujib, his family and relatives were killed on the night and the guilty army officers, therecore, could certainly be tried in a conventional court. The state counsel also said mutiny was exclusively triable by a court martial, but in the case of murder, the Army Act 1952 provides concurrent jurisdiction to both a court martial and an ordinary criminal court. As for scope and jurisdiction of the third judge, the government said it would depend on the third judge’s discretion whether she or he would hear the whole case or only the disputed points. Defence counsel in their arguments said the killing of Sheikh Mujib and the members of the family were part of an army mutiny and the case should be tried by a military court. They argued Mujib’s case was similar to the case of former president Ziaur Rahman, killed in a mutiny which had originated in the Chittagong cantonment and culminated in the killing of Ziaur Rahman in the Chittagong circuit house. Mutiny was not a penal code offence, the defence counsel said, adding that it was an offence under the army act and exclusively a matter to be tried by a court martial in keeping with the provision of Section 31 of the Army Act.