The judgment and the law

HAROON HABIB

SOME legal experts in Bangladesh believe that in sentencing to death by firing squad those found guilty of assassinating Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Judge of the District and Sessions Court, Dhaka, Kazi Golam Rasul, may have exceeded the limits of penal law.

The experts say that the penal law of the country makes no provision to carry out death sentences by firing squad; it provides only for death by hanging.

However, Judge Kazi Golam Rasul ruled that "if there were any problems for the authorities" in executing the death sentence by firing squad, the conventional method of execution, by hanging, could be resorted to.

M. JUEL
Taheruddin Thakur, who was Minister of State for Information in Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Government and later one of the accused in the assassination case, was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence.

The death sentence will automatically go to the Supreme Court for confirmation. Besides, those sentenced have a right of appeal.

Former Attorney-General Rafiqul Huq said that the verdict "opens a new chapter in the judicial history of Bangladesh". He said that the sentencing of the guilty to death by firing squad was "illegal". However, he said that this was probably the result of a "clerical error" and would not affect the validity of the sentence. After studying several case histories, Huq said that the Government could appeal to the High Court Division to modify the portion of the sentence that related to death by firing squad.

Chief Public Prosecutor Serajul Huq said that the Judge perhaps specified death by firing squad owing to the nature of the crime, but added that the law did not provide for it.

The Government is likely to file a petition seeking a revision of the controversial portion of the judgment and challenging the acquittal of former Information Minister Taheruddin Thakur, a prime accused in the case.

DELIVERING the verdict, the Judge said that the convicted persons did not deserve mercy or compassion. He castigated politicians who switched loyalties all too easily, and the Army for its role in the assassination.

Of Thakur, who was given the benefit of the doubt and acquitted, the Judge said: "When the bullet-ridden body of Bangabandhu was lying at Dhanmondi, Thakur was busy preparing speeches and statements at the radio station." The Judge added: "Politics here is leader-based. If the leader is there, everything is there, and I am there... if the leader is not there, nothing is there and I am no more there."

The Judge said that senior officers of the Bangladesh Army, particularly those posted in Dhaka, "did not perform their due role." They failed to act on Mujibur Rahman's telephonic instructions to provide him security, he added. There was evidence to establish that only a handful of junior officers from two regiments were involved in the killing; why the armed forces did not take steps to disarm these few officers "is not understandable", he said. The incident, said the Judge, would remain "a permanent black spot" on the Army.

In response to allegations by the lawyers of Lt. Col. Syed Farooq Rehman, one of the accused, that the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States may have been involved in the assassination, the Judge said that the court's findings rejected any such possibility.

The Judge cited several plausible reasons for the assassination, such as speculation that Commerce Minister Khandaker Mostaque Ahmed would be dropped from the Cabinet; strained relations between the Awami League and some Army officers over the seizure of arms and the dismissal of some officers; and the introduction of a one-party system of governance.

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