BANGLADESH: HC UPHOLDS DEATH PENALTY OF 9 ‘OUTLAWS’

the Bangladeshi High Court upheld the death sentences given by a trial court to nine cadres of a banned outfit for killing Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) president Kazi Aref Ahmed and four other party leaders in Kushtia nine years ago. The HC bench of Justice AKM Fazlur Rahman and Justice ATM Fazle Kabir acquitted 14 others, including one earlier condemned to death, on the charges. The bench said it was obvious that confessional statements given by three detained convicts were in accord with the statements of 10 impartial witnesses, said defence lawyer Zaman Akhter Bulbul. The nine are Ilias Hossain alias Elas of Talbaria, Baker of Kishori Nagar, Mannan Mollah of Pachabhita, Anwar, Rashedul Islam Jhantu and Jahan of Kursha, Jalal of Baliashisha, Safayet Hossain Habib alias Habi of Rajnagar and Rawshan Ali of Bhabanipur, in Meherpur. Elas, Jhantu and Habi are now in jail, while the others are in hiding. A man, Sohir, was acquitted after being previously condemned to death for the crime. Kazi Aref, a liberation-war organiser, and the four Kushtia unit JSD leaders were killed at a rally in Kalidaspur village in Kushtia's Daulatpur upazila on February 16, 1999. Additional Sessions Judge of Kushtia Md Fazlur Rahman sentenced 10 of the accused to death and another 13 to life in prison on August 30, 2004. The convicts later lodged appeals to the HC against the verdict.