The counsels repeatedly tried to persuade the court to adjourn the hearing. But the three-member SC bench took a firm position that the case had waited long enough, and now there is no justification for not hearing the petitions by four condemned prisoners seeking leave to appeal against the High Court (HC) verdict.

The HC had awarded death penalty to 12 former army personnel including the four on April 30, 2001.

"We have sat not to deliver adjournment," said Justice Joynul Abedin, who is on the SC bench headed by Justice Tafazzul Islam with Justice Hassan Ameen as the other member.

The court sat to hear the leave to appeal petitions filed by four convicts -- Lt Col (retd) Bazlul Huda, Lt Col (retd) Syed Faruk Rahman, Maj (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan and Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed. Another condemned prisoner, Maj (retd) AKM Mohiuddin, also filed an appeal through the jail authorities in June following his extradition from the US.

Lack preparation and sketchy statements of the defence counsels apparently irritated the judges.

As hearing of the case started at 9:15 am, counsel for Bazlul Huda Advocate Nurul Islam Bhuiyan was the first to pray for its adjournment for a month. He said the counsel who originally stood for Huda had expired and his next counsel former BNP parliamentarian Mahbubur Rahman is ill. So, the hearing should be adjourned. The court noted that his (Huda) first counsel had expired long ago and that except Mahbubur, other counsels for him are already present.

"If any of you want to say something, then proceed. We did not come here just to sit idle," said Justice Joynul Abedin.

Khan Saifur Rahman, counsel for Faruk and Mohiuddin, also pleaded for adjournment on ground of making "satisfactory preparation". Justice Tafazzul responded, saying, "Please get ready for your case." But Saifur said it was not possible for him to put up all the records now.

Tafazzul then said, "At least read the leave petition. We will go slow. But let us start. Everybody knows that the case will resume on August 7." The counsel submitted that he could not make adequate preparation and that this was not a deliberate act.

Interestingly, Deputy Attorney General Syed Haidar Ali, the state counsel in the case, did not oppose the plea for adjournment. He did not play any role in the proceedings yesterday. Rather, former special prosecutor in this case advocate Anisul Haq was seen helping the court in correcting information.

When the court asked the counsels not to waste time arguing for adjournment and to start reading out leave to appeal prayers or copy of the HC judgement, the five counsels appeared not to have any paper book (history of the case) with them.

Seemingly irritated at such callousness, the judges asked the bench officials to provide the counsels with the paper books. They were given these documents at 9.45 am. The court then asked Huda's counsel Nurul Islam to start reading out the HC verdict that was pronounced by Justice Ruhul Amin.

Advocate Rezak Khan, counsel for Shahriar, however did not seek adjournment, and seemed prepared.

Nurul Islam read out 113 pages from the HC judgement till 1:00 pm.

The court said this will continue today (Wednesday).

Justice Tafazzal noted that the court will take time in the hearing. In the meantime, the parties should complete appointing their lawyers.

Meanwhile, Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun introduced himself as counsel for AKM Mohiuddin. Earlier, the government had appointed Khan Saifur Rahman as his counsel but the convict on his own initiative have Mamun to defend him.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated along with most of his family members on August 15, 1975. A case was filed on October 2, 1996.

A trial court on November 8, 1998, handed down death penalty to 15 retired and dismissed army personnel for the multiple murders. The HC upheld the death sentence of 12 of the condemned. And five of them are now behind bars, one died, and the rest are still at large.

Leave petitions of the four have been pending due to shortage of judges in the SC Appellate Division since August 2001.

To witness the hearing of the case, family members and relatives of the five condemned prisoners came to the SC. They included Faruk's mother and Shahriar's wife and brother.

Visitors to the court as well as lawyers appeared excited that the long awaited hearing finally resumed.