Staff Correspondent
The government will take steps immediately to appoint two new judges to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for speedy disposal of the appeals in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case, said law minister Shafique Ahmed on Wednesday.
‘The Awami League government initiated the trial process in 1996. But no other government took any initiatives to complete the trial…Instead, the killers of Bangabandhu were rewarded,’ the minister told reporters at his ministry.
When his comments were sought on the media reports that there was a move to impeach president Iajuddin Ahmed, the law minister said he was unaware of any such plan.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founder president of Bangladesh, was killed along with all but two of his family members on August 15, 1975 in a military putsch.
Terming the bloody event a heinous crime, the law minister said it was now a national demand that the trial of the killers must be completed without further delay.
The attorney general’s office will take necessary steps to appoint judges to the Appellate Division to complete the trial of the case, which is in the final stage, he said adding that the government would offer all-out assistance in this regard.
The Supreme Judicial Commission, formed in 2008 to recommend appointment of judges to the Supreme Court, on October 16, 2008 recommended four senior High Court judges of whom two would be appointed to the Appellate Division.
The first meeting of the commission, attended by eight of its nine members including Shafique, had recommended Justice Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman, Justice Md Abdul Quddus, Justice Md Abdul Aziz, and Justice BK Das for appointment as Appellate Division judges.
The appointment of the two judges, however, is yet to be made.
Shafique said two of the four judges named by the commission would be appointed to the Appellate Division.
The Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case awaits disposal by the Appellate Division even after the passage of about eight years after the High Court handed death sentences to 12 former army personnel.
Six years after the High Court verdict, the Appellate Division on July 7, 2007, began hearing – when it had three judges to hear the case – the petitions filed by five of the condemned convicts seeking permission to appeal against the High Court verdict.
On September 23, 2007, it allowed the five to appeal against the High Court verdict.
The appeals filed by the five convicts are yet to be heard by the Appellate Division as it does not have the required number of judges to make the quorum to hear the appeals.
Of the five sitting Appellate Division judges, the chief justice, MM Ruhul Amin, and Justice MA Matin cannot hear the case as they earlier felt embarrassed in hearing the case in the High Court. Justice Mohammad Fazlul Karim cannot hear the case because he heard it in the High Court.
The other two – Justice Tafazzul Islam and Justice Joynul Abedin – are competent to hear the appeals, but the Appellate Division rules require at least three judges to make a quorum to hear the appeals as the High Court verdict was delivered by three judges.
The Dhaka district and sessions judge, Quazi Golam Rasul, on November 8, 1998, sentenced 15 of the 20 accused to death for killing Sheikh Mujib and all but two of his family members.
Mujib’s personal assistant Muhitul Islam filed a murder case with the Dhanmondi police on October 2, 1996, 21 years after the killings.
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 death sentences of 12 and acquitted three others.
The Appellate Division will also hear the appeal on the legality of the verdict given by the third judge of the High Court, Justice Fazlul Karim.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
