HC poised to finish appeal hearing in Nov
The High Court is likely to finish the hearing of the BDR carnage case in November this year, as it has already completed majority of the proceedings.
The HC has already heard arguments on the appeals of 151 death-row convicts, 158 lifers, and those sentenced to three to 10 years in jail by the trial court, Deputy Attorney General AKM Zahid Sarwar Kazal and defence counsel Aminul Islam told The Daily Star.
The special HC bench has also heard arguments on government appeals against 22 of the total 69 who were acquitted by the lower court in the case, they said.
They said after completion of hearing proceedings, the three-member HC bench will fix a date for delivering the verdict on the biggest ever criminal case in the country's history in terms of the number of accused and convicts.
The HC, which went on an annual vacation from September 9, will reopen on October 30, and then it will resume the hearing.
After the verdict, it may take some time for writing and releasing the full verdict and then both the state and defence may appeal the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the HC verdict.
“The apex court will then hear and dispose of the appeals and it may take another two to three years to deliver the final judgment of the case even if the proceedings are run on priority basis,” said defence counsel Aminul Islam.
The death reference and the appeals were filed with the High Court, months after a Dhaka court announced the verdict on November 5, 2013, nearly five years after the bloody mutiny at BDR headquarters in Pilkhana.
The trial court gave death sentences to 150 soldiers of the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) and two civilians, and jailed 160 others for life for their roles and involvement in the carnage.
It also handed down rigorous imprisonment, ranging from three to 10 years, to 256 people, mostly BDR soldiers. The court acquitted the remaining 277 accused, but the government later appealed against the acquittal of 69 of them.
A total of 846 people, 823 of them BDR personnel, stood trial in the carnage case.
Seventy-four people, including 57 army officials, were massacred during the BDR mutiny on February 25-26, 2009 at the Pilkhana headquarters of the paramilitary force, renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
The special HC bench comprising Justice Md Shawkat Hossain, Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique, and Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder started hearing the death reference and 255 appeals in January last year.
Meanwhile, 17,306 BDR jawans are facing trial in 11 special BDR courts and 60 summary trial courts for mutiny.
At least 78 accused jawans, both in carnage and mutiny cases, died under mysterious circumstances after the mutiny. Many of them reportedly died of heart attack in police custody while a few others committed suicide.
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