B’desh SC upholds death to HuJI leader, 2 others

Dhaka, March 19

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The Bangladesh Supreme Court today upheld the death sentence of banned Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami’s former leader and two of his accomplices for attacking British envoy in 2004, paving the way for their execution.

HuJI leader Mufti Hannan lost the legal battle to save himself from the charges of an attempt on life of the former UK envoy to Bangladesh. Hannan and two of his associates attacked a shrine in 2004 that left three persons dead and injured Anwar Chowdhury, the British high commissioner at the time.

“There now remains no barrier in executing (HuJI chief) Mufti Abdul Hannan and the two other operatives of the outfit,” a spokesman for the attorney general’s office said as the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division rejected a plea by the convicts seeking review of the apex court decision.

He said a three-member apex court bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha rejected the plea after holding hearing on the convicts’ review petition.

According to Bangladesh’s legal system, the convicts can seek presidential clemency to save themselves and unless they are pardoned, jail authorities can hang them in four weeks. Chowdhury narrowly escaped the grenade attack by sustaining minor injury  when three policemen were killed and 70 others wounded. — PTI