SC to hear appeal Dec 11

The Supreme Court yesterday fixed December 11 for hearing of an appeal filed against a High Court verdict that acquitted six former army personnel in the jail killing case.
The government filed the appeal last year challenging the HC verdict in the case filed for killing four national leaders inside the Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975.
The four leaders are Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmad, AHM Quamruzzaman and Captain Mansur Ali.
The government recently submitted a concise statement to the SC praying for upholding the lower court verdict that had awarded death penalty to three former army personnel and life term imprisonment to 12 others.
Yesterday, a five-member bench of the Appellate Division of SC headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain fixed the date for hearing the appeal after Attorney General Mahbubey Alam and Anisul Huq, principal state counsel for the case, prayed for its early hearing.
The Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court of Dhaka in 2004 convicted and sentenced to death Risalder (retd) Muslemuddin, Dafadar (dismissed) Marfat Ali Shah and Dafadar (dismissed) Abdul Hashem Mridha for killing the four national leaders.
The court also awarded life imprisonment to Lt Col (dismissed) Syed Farooq-ur Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda, Lt Col (dismissed) Khondaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haq Dalim, Lt Col (retd) SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Maj (Retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Lt Col (retd) AM Rashed Chowdhury, Maj (relieved) Ahmed Shariful Hossain, Capt (retd) Abdul Majed, Capt (relieved) Kismat Hasem and Capt (relieved) Nazmul Hossain for abetting the killers.
The HC in its verdict on August 28, 2008, upheld the capital punishment of Muslemuddin and acquitted Marfat and Hashem.
It also acquitted Farooq, Shahriar, Mohiuddin and Bazlul Huda, and did not say anything about the eight others who were given life term by the lower court.
On January 27, 2010, Farooq, Shahriar, Mohiuddin and Bazlul Huda were executed in the Bangabandhu assassination case. The other convicts in the case are on the run.