Assassination attempt on Sheikh Hasina: B’desh HC upholds death sentence to 10

Dhaka: The Bangladesh High Court on Wednesday upheld the execution of ten people convicted of attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by planting a bomb in Kotalipara, Gopalganj two decades ago. 

Meanwhile, one person has been acquitted.

Justices Jahangir Hossain Selim and Badruzzaman’s virtual High Court bench gave the verdict.

The convicts are: Wasim Akter alias Tareq alias Marfat Ali, Rashed Driver alias Abul Kalam alias Rasheduzzaman alias Shimon Khan, Yusuf alias Mosahab Moral alias Abu Musa Harun, Sheikh Farid alias Maulana Shawkat Osman, Hafez Jahangir Alam Selfar, Hafez Maulana Yahya, Mufti Shafiqur Rahman, Mufti Abdul Hai and Maulana Abdur Rauf alias Abdur Razzak alias Omar.

However, accused Mehedi Hasan, alias Abdul Wadud, was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined Tk 10,000.

The accused Anisul Islam alias Anis and Md. Mahibullah alias Mofizur Rahman was released after serving 14 years and accused Sarwar Hossain Mia was acquitted by the High Court.

On February 1, the state and the defendants presented their arguments on the death reference sent by the lower court and the defendant’s appeal for approval of the death sentence in the case. Later, the concerned bench of the High Court fixed the date for announcing the verdict.

Deputy Attorney General of the state on that day Bashir Ullah said that after the hearing, the court said, “We have decided that the verdict will be announced in Bengali in honor of Language Month.”

AM Amin Uddin, the chief legal officer of the state, appeared in the court on the same day. He was accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Biswajit Debnath and Dr. Md. Bashir Ullah, Assistant Attorney General Mizanur Rahman Khan Shaheen, Md. Shaheen Ahmed Mridha, Ashiquzzaman Babu, Shafayat Jamil and Syeda Zahida Sultana Ratna. Advocate SM Shahjahan, Mohammad Ahsan, Md. Nasir Uddin and Amulya Kumar Sarkar (State Defense Attorney).

Attorney General AM Amin Uddin told reporters that the assassination attempt on Ms Hasina has proved to be a far-reaching conspiracy of the accused to make the country leaderless. (UNI)