BDR carnage case: 9 convicts challenge death penalty
The appeal was filed on Tuesday with the Appellate division within two weeks after the state filed a leave to appeal petition against 83 people, who were granted acquittal and reduced penalty in the case
Nine convicts of the 2009 Pilkhana carnage case have filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court that challenges the High Court verdict that uphold their capital punishment handed by the trial court.
The appeal was filed on Tuesday (5 January) with the Appellate division within two weeks after the state filed a leave to appeal petition against 83 people, who were granted acquittal and reduced penalty in the case, reports Prothom Alo.
The convicted appellants are -- Sepoy Kamal Mollah, Sepoy Bazlur Rashid, Sepoy Abdul Mohit, Sepoy Md Moniruzzaman, Subedar Major Shahidur Rahman, Habildar ABM Anisuzzaman, Habildar Yusuf Ali, Nayek Subedar Fazlul Karim and Nayek Abu Sayeed Alam.
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According to defendant lawyer Md Aminul Islam, 14 sets of appeal paper-book with 55,623-page document in 140 volumes were submitted seeking acquittal of the nine convicts, who were sentenced to death in a judicial court and that was also upheld in the High Court verdict.
The defendant lawyer further said that an appeal has also been lodged to the chief justice seeking exemption from providing paper books and other documents for the 48 appeals against the High Court verdict.
"The forty-eight acquittal appeals of another hundred convicts will be filed following the courts' decision," he added.
Earlier On November 27, 2017, the special HC bench pronounced a verdict that confirmed the death sentence on 139 of the 152 convicts who were given capital punishment by a lower court for involvement in the carnage during the mutiny by the paramilitary force members.
Moreover in the verdict, 185 people were sentenced to life imprisonment and 228 were sentenced to different terms.
The full judgment of the High Court was published last year on 8 January.
The mutiny on February 25-26, 2009 left the nation shocked and numb — as details of the unthinkable cruelty perpetrated at the Pilkhana headquarters of the paramilitary force emerged. The BDR was later renamed the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).
