subject: Bangladesh: Justice delayed and denied [print this page] By William Gomes By William Gomes
I woke up on Jan. 28 and was shocked to read the news of the execution of five former army officers - Syed Farooq-ur Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda, convicted for killing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding leader of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the country's first president. Most of Rahman's family members were also killed including his 10-year-old son.
The five were executed in Dhaka Central Jail, nearly 35 years after they assassinated Rahman in an army coup. As much as I was shocked to read the gruesome killing of the Rahman family, I was equally pained, as an anti death-penalty activist to note the execution of the five persons.
Rahman's murder was interconnected by many political norms of the nation, which delayed justice for years. These forces set up a platform and even enforced a change in the country's constitution.
More than 21 years after the assassination, a case was filed in October 1996, four months after the Awami League party led by Sheikh Hasina, one of Mujibur Rahman's two surviving daughters, assumed office.
After 17 months of hearings, on Nov. 8, 1998, Kazi Gulam Rasul, a district and sessions court judge in Dhaka sentenced 15 former army officers to death by firing squad in public for the brutal murder of Rahman and 26 others including his wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law, a brother, and other close relatives, political associates and security men in a pre-dawn attack on Aug. 15, 1975.
The accused were Syed Farooq-ur Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Muhiuddin Ahmed, A.K.M. Mahiuddin Ahmed, Bazlul Huda, Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, Ahmed Shariful Hossain, A.M. Rashed Chowdhury, S.H.M.B. Noor Chowdhury, Md. Abdul Aziz Pasha, Md. Kismat Hashem, Nazmul Hossain Ansar, Abdul Mazed, and Moslemuddin.
On Dec. 14, 2000, when the case went for an appeal hearing, the High Court delivered a split verdict. One judge upheld the death sentence for 10 of the accused and acquitted the other five while another judge upheld the death sentences on all 15 defendants.
Another high court judge then took up the case and a final verdict was delivered on April. 30, 2001, upholding the death sentences of 12 defendants while three - Md. Kismat Hashem, Ahmed Shariful Hossain and Nazmul Hossain Ansar were acquitted. The five - Syed Farooq-ur Rahman, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, and Bazlul Huda were convicted and detained in the Dhaka Central Jail, but later appealed to the Supreme Court against their death sentences.
The Supreme Court upheld their sentences on Nov. 19, 2009 and a final review of the case was scheduled on Jan. 24, 2010, as the last judicial remedy to the five men.
However, the entire trial has been questioned for its fairness and the political bias of judges, especially with the Awami League in power. But this is a normal procedure in Bangladesh.
If prisoners are sentenced to death, they can appeal to the High Court against their conviction. If the High Court upholds the sentence, they can appeal to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court upholds the sentence, the prisoners have one more judicial remedy and that is a final review of the case by the same bench of the Supreme Court. If the death sentence is still upheld, the only remedy open to the prisoners is a mercy petition requesting clemency from the president.
