BANGLADESH: SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCES OF THREE EX-ARMYMEN

May 4, 2013: The appellate division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court earlier this week upheld the death sentences of three former military personnel who were acquitted by the high court earlier.
They are Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah , Dafadar Abul Hashem Mridha and Risaldar Moslemuddin for their direct involvement in a 1975 Jail Killing .
In 2004, Dhaka Sessions Judge gave verdict on the historic jail killing case, sentencing Risaldar Moslem Uddin, Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Dafadar Abul Hashem Mridha to death. The court had also awarded 12 army officers life sentence. Later, the High Court had acquitted Marfat Ali and Abul Hashem Mridha in 2008 following an appeal.
The SC came up with the order acting on a government appeal challenging a High Court verdict in the case, filed for killing four independence leaders who led the provisional Bangladesh government during the nation’s liberation war in 1971. They are Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, AHM Quamruzzaman and Captain Mansur Ali . Following the nation’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s assassination, these four national leaders were brutally killed inside the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.
The six-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain announced the verdict after turning down the High Court judgement in this case. (Sources: thehindu.com, 04/05/2013)