Five killers of Mujib to go to the gallows: Bangla SC

Thirty-four years after Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assasinated in a coup, the country's Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence on five of his killers, paving the way for their walk to the gallows after a trial that dragged on for 13 years.

The five are among the 12 sacked Army officers, convicted for the 1975 killing, by the court which delieverd its judgement in 15 minutes amidst unprecendented security measures.

The apex court upheld the death sentence awarded to the killers by a lower court in 1998. Seven others who were also convicted are fugitives abroad.

Sheikh Mujibur, popularly called Bangabandhu, who led Bangladesh to independence in 1971, was gunned down at his home in a posh Dhanmandi area, along with his wife and three sons in a coup on August 15, 1975.

His daughter Sheikh Hasina, who is the current prime minister, was abroad at that time.

A total of 20 people, including domestic staff, were killed when the Army officers stormed into his house, but the murder charges have been brought forward only for the killing of Sheikh Mujibur.

"The Supreme Court has accepted our argument that the five men are guilty and dismissed their appeals. They will go to the gallows now," shief State prosecutor Syed Anisul Haque, said.

Senior judge of the bench Tafazzal Islam delivered the verdict at the heavily guarded and crowded courtroom here, rejecting the leave to appeal prayers of five of the 12 convicted soldiers.

In line with the judgement, all the 12 ex-army officers who were earlier handed down capital punishment, would have to walk to the gallows.

The case first came to the court in 1996, when Sheikh Hasina became the prime minister for the first time. She removed legal barriers enacted by the post-Mujib military governments to protect the killers.

At that time, the lower courts found 15 men guilty and sentenced them to death. Three were acquitted in 2001, while of the remaining 12, five appealed against the verdict to the Supreme Court.

Six of the seven absconding accused are in hiding abroad, and the seventh died in Zimbabwe recently.

The defence for the killers argued that Sheikh Mujib's death was part of a mutiny and the defendants should be tried by a military court.