The government on Tuesday urged the Appellate Division to reinstate the trial court sentences for all 49 convicts in the cases in connection with the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on a rally of the Awami League on Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.
Deputy attorney general Abdullah Al Mahmud Masum made the appeal before a six-member bench led by chief justice Syed Refaat Ahmed.
He called for restoring the death sentences for 19 people, including former state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, and the life term imprisonment of 19 others, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman and BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia鈥檚 elder son Tarique Rahman.
He also sought to reinstate the convictions of 11 more individuals who received various jail terms.
The appeal challenged the High Court verdict delivered on December 1, 2024, which had acquitted Tarique Rahman, Babar, and 47 others of murder and explosives charges, citing legal and procedural flaws in the 2018 trial court judgment.
During the hearing, the court questioned the state lawyer about the reliability of the 2007 confessional statement by Harkat-ul-Jihad leader Mufti Abdul Hannan.
The bench asked how the statement could be considered voluntary and truthful when Hannan was already a death row inmate at the time.
The Appellate Division also raised serious questions about the credibility of confessional statements recorded by Sultan Mahmud, the then additional chief metropolitan magistrate of Dhaka.
He handwrote the lengthy confessions of Mufti Hannan, his brother Mohibullah, and Moulana Sharif Shahidul Alam鈥攁ll within five and a half hours in a single day.
These confessions admitted their involvement in the August 21 grenade attack. However, the apex court questioned how Hannan and three others were executed in a separate case before being given the chance to defend themselves in the August 21 trial, which relied heavily on those very confessional statements.
In 2011, a supplementary charge sheet added 30 new accused, including Tarique Rahman and Lutfozzaman Babar, based on Hannan鈥檚 confessions.
This followed a fresh investigation launched in 2009 during the Awami League regime. As many as 61 witnesses testified during the trial.
The original charge sheet, submitted in 2007, named 22 accused, including Mufti Hannan, former BNP state minister Abdus Salam Pintu, and Moulana Tajuddin.
Altogether, 49 people were tried and convicted. Mufti Hannan was executed on April 12, 2017, in connection with the grenade attack on then British high commissioner Anwar Choudhury in Sylhet on May 21, 2004. The attack wounded Anwar Choudhury and killed two bystanders and a police officer.
The apex court adjourned the hearing until Wednesday morning, when the chief defence counsel SM Shajahan is scheduled to resume arguments on behalf of the majority of the accused.
At least 24 people were killed and scores, including the then opposition leader and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, were injured when grenades were hurled at the AL rally.
On October 10, 2018, Dhaka鈥檚 Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 sentenced 19 people to death, Tarique Rahman and 18 others to life term imprisonment, and 11 more to various prison terms.
Tarique, along with 15 other accused, was tried in absentia, as he has been living in London since 2008.