Chief state counsel of Bangabandhu assassination case advocate Anisul Huq yesterday appealed to the Supreme Court to uphold the death sentence of the convicts, saying there is no scope for mercy as their offence was proved beyond doubt.
Meanwhile, barrister Abdullah-al Mamun, counsel for convicts Bazlul Huda and AKM Mohiuddin, prayed to the court to acquit his clients or at least commute their sentence, claiming they were not involved in the incidents of August 15, 1975.
The lawyers made the appeals while concluding their submission before the five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Justice Md Tafazzul Islam on the 28th day’s hearing yesterday on the appeals filed by five convicts challenging their sentence.
The court adjourned the hearing till this morning and would hear today submission from the counsels of three other convicts.
Anisul Huq told the court the state’s duty was to put the perpetrators of the assassination of Bangabandhu and his family members into trial and it had done it without taking any revenge on them.
“The agony of waiting and the pain of denial have at times led us to frustration but never did it shake our uncompromising faith in the intrinsic strength of our judicial system. We always endeavoured to bring the perpetrators of such a heinous crime to book in accordance with the law,” he said.
Anisul Huq added, “The collective conscience of the nation is so shocked by such horrendous crime that it expects the holders of the judicial power centre to inflict no other sentence but the death penalty.
“The murder is extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical and revolting and it arouses an extreme indignation of the community. It is an act of betrayal to the motherland.
“A lot of people’s tears have dried, up but their hearts still bleed and it is for the court to deliver a judgment will stop this haemorrhage,” he said, adding the offence will be indulged if the sentence of the convicts is reduced.
Abdullah-al Mamun told the court reinvestigation and retrial of the incidents of August 15, 1975 must be held to unearth the facts behind the killings.
If reinvestigation and retrial of the case are not held, the real culprits will remain untouched and be happy, he observed.
The then army chief Maj Gen (retd) KM Shafiullah did not carry out the command of Bangabandhu, who was the president and the supreme commander of the armed forces, to send the force to his house when the assailants attacked the house on August 15, he said.
Mamun claimed the incidents of that day were the results of a mutiny and Shafiullah was involved in the incidents.
He added four military persons including Bangabandhu were killed in the incidents, and the trial of these incidents and the mutiny has to be held at the court martial under the army act.
He prayed to the highest court to commute the sentence of his clients, considering that they have been suffering in jail for a long period.
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