Trial hamstrung
The gory scene after the grenade blasts on Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital on August 21, 2004. Photo: File
As the nation observes the ninth anniversary of the August 21 grenade blasts today, it is still uncertain whether the trial for the gruesome attack will be completed during the tenure of a government which leaves office in a few months.
The trial court has recorded the statements of only 12 prosecution witnesses, including some former DGFI officials, since April 23 last year when the trial commenced for the second time.
The court recorded the statements of three witnesses from the first charge sheet and nine from the supplementary charge sheet. In both the charge sheets, a total of 491 people have been made prosecution witnesses.
The first trial court had recorded statements from 61 prosecution witnesses who were considered less important.
The grenade assault was carried out at an Awami League rally on Bangabandhu Avenue to kill then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina.
Hasina, now prime minister, narrowly escaped death. But 24 leaders and activists, including late president Zillur Rahman's wife Ivy Rahman, were killed and 300 others injured.
Syed Rezaur Rahman, chief counsel of the cases, told The Daily Star yesterday that he was trying his best to get the trial completed. The court is yet to take depositions of a number of vital witnesses.
Moreover, most of the accused are common in several other cases pending with war crimes tribunals, the ten-truck arms haul case in Chittagong and cases relating to militant activities.
On different dates, they were produced before the courts where the trial of the cases was going on. As a result, the August 21 grenade attack trial is falling behind.
Moreover, defence teams had been trying to delay the disposal of the cases on different excuses, Rezaur added.
Asked about the fate of the trial if the main opposition came to power after the general elections, Rezaur Rahman said the trial would continue and justice would be done if rule of law remained in the country.
The BNP-led-18 party alliance government had made a Joj Miah drama to divert the incident which hampered the investigation. In 2005, Joj Miah, a petty criminal, was implicated in the cases and the then CID obtained his “confessional statement”.
Time was also killed as lawyer for Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan in February this year filed a criminal revision with the High Court challenging the legality of recording Hannan's confessional statement by an additional metropolitan magistrate on April 7, 2011.
After the hearing, the HC dismissed the revision but over 67 days had been lost. During that period the trial court could not continue its proceedings.
Advocate Masud Ahmed Talukder, one of the defence lawyers for former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar and BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu, has told The Daily Star that if the BNP-led-18 party government assumed power the trial would be conducted “neutrally”.
The AL government had implicated several BNP high profile leaders, including BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman, as part of a conspiracy to harass them politically, he added.
So, Masud said, the trial would be continued as per law even after the government changed but without the political implications involved.
The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on June 9, 2008 pressed charges against Abdus Salam Pintu, Huji chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and 20 others for their alleged involvement in the grisly attack.
Of them, Pintu, Hannan and 12 others are in custody while Pintu's brother Moulana Tajuddin and seven others have been absconding.
Later, charges were framed against them.
The trial began in 2008 and the court recorded the statements of 61 prosecution witnesses, including that of the complainant of the cases.
Meantime, the AL formed the government in 2009 and submitted petitions on August 3, 2009 for further investigation into the cases to find out the suppliers of the Arges grenades used in the attack.
In the hearing, the court ordered the CID to go for further investigation and after the investigation the CID on July 2, 2011 submitted supplementary charge sheets against Tarique Rahman, Babar, Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed and 28 others.
Tarique and 19 others have been absconding while 24 others, including Babar, Pintu and Mojaheed are now in jail custody.
Eight others, including BNP leader Ariful Islam Arif and Saiful Islam Duke, nephew of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia, are now out on bail.
Meanwhile, the court asked Tarique and 19 others to appear before it to face trial, but they did not comply with the court order. Later, the court termed Tarique and the others as fugitives and issued arrest warrants against them.
The court framed charges against Tarique and the others on March 18 last year. The second trial commenced the following month.
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