Justice order of the day

Dhaka; The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver its judgement in the appeals of the five death-row convicts in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case at 11:00am today amid heightened security on the court premises and elsewhere across the country.
The five-member Appellate Division bench headed by Justice Tafazzul Islam after the hearing in the appeals for 29 days on November 12 posted the verdict delivery for this morning. The court started hearing in the appeals on October 5.
A large number of law enforcers, in uniform and plain clothes, have been deployed in and around the court to stave off any untoward incidents. Dog squads have also been deployed in the court area.
Several closed-circuit cameras have been installed at the main entrance of the Supreme Court building and metal detectors have been installed at every entrance towards the chief justice’s courtroom.
The state minister for home affairs, Shamsul Haque Tuku, visited the court premises Wednesday morning to examine security measures.
The attorney general, Mahbubey Alam, told reporters on Wednesday he feared criminal activities, including the implanting of bombs on the court premises. He said all were asked to remain alert to any such activities.
Quazi Golam Rasul, who was the Dhaka district and sessions judge, on November 8, 1998 sentenced to death 15 out of the 20 accused of killing the country’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and all but two of the family on August 15, 1975.
Sheikh Mujib’s personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed the murder case with the Dhanmondi police on October 2, 1996, 21 years after the killing.
Eleven people, including Sheikh Mujib, his wife Fazilatunessa Mujib, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russell, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal and Rosy Jamal, and brother Sheikh Naser were killed in his residence at Dhanmondi early August 15, 1975.
Two others killed in the house were Detective Branch officer Nurul Islam Khan and sepoy Shamsu of the house guards, who were on duty.
The president’s military secretary Colonel Jamil, who was rushing to the residence of the then president in response to his call, was also killed near the Sobahanbagh mosque.
Only Mujib’s daughters Sheikh Hasina, now the prime minister and Awami League president, and Sheikh Rehana survived the killing as they were abroad at the time.
The High Court on December 14, 2000 delivered a split verdict in the case. Justice M Ruhul Amin, the 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.
Justice Fazlul Karim in the final High Court verdict in the case on April 30, 2001 upheld death sentences for 12 and acquitted three.
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.
The army men sentenced by the sessions judge to death are Syed Faruque Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Chowdhury, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Bazlul Huda, Shariful Huq Dalim, Ahmed Shaful Hossain also named as Shariful Islam, Rashed Chowdhury, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Nur Chowdhury, Md Aziz Pasha, who died after he had been sentenced, Md Kismat Hashem, Nazmul Hossain Anseri, Abdul Mazed and Moslemuddin.
Shariful, Kismat and Nazmul were acquitted of the charges by the final High Court verdict.
The government, however, did not file any appeal against the acquittal.
Faruque, Shahriar, Muhiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul, 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.
Other convicts on the death row are still in hiding.
According to the government, Abdur Rashid is now in Libya or Belgium, Dalim in Pakistan or Hong Kong, Rashed Chowdhury in Canada, Nur Chowdhury in the Untied States and Mazed in hiding in an African country. Molesuddin is yet to be traced. Pasha died in Zimbabwe in 2002.
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 relative were killed and the guilty army officers could, therefore, 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 of 1952 provides concurrent jurisdiction to both a court martial and an ordinary criminal court.
Defence counsels in their arguments said the killing of Sheikh Mujib and his family members was part of an army mutiny and the case should be tried in a military court.
Mutiny was not a penal code offence, the defence counsel said, adding it was an offence under the army act and exclusively a matter to be tried in a court martial in keeping with the provision in Section 31 of the army act.