The High Court will likely announce the verdict on Monday on the death references and appeals of 152 convicts for killing 74 army officers and civilians during the 2009 BDR mutiny in Dhaka’s Pilkhana.
Before concluding the verdict reading on Sunday, the court said that it would finish the observation part by noon Monday; the sentencing would be announced afterwards.
“The sentences will be unanimous but there might be some differences in reasoning, language or presentation among our parts of the judgment. A historic decision will come. We have all agreed on the sentencing part,” said Justice Md Shawkat Hossain, presiding judge of the three-member bench.
The court said that it finished the trial process holding hearings on 370 working days. The verdict delivery may take another day as in it the court would mention the reasoning behind the every conviction and acquittal in the case.
Urging the family members of both the victims and the accused and the nation to be patient, the court said it would resume delivering the judgment at 10:30am on Monday.
On Sunday, it started reading out around 10:50am and finished around 4pm. At first Justice Hossain read out the opening part and then Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique read out the personal observations.
The presiding judge said the observations made by Justice Siddique might have some changes when the full text is finalised.
This morning, other judge of the bench, Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder, will read out his observations and the court will start delivering the sentences after he finishes.
The observations made till now described the violence and massacre the erstwhile Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) men unleashed on their officers, family members during the mutiny on February 25-26 in 2009 at the Pilkhana headquarters.
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The court said that East Pakistan Rifles (EPR) had a glorious history of fighting against the Pakistan army during the 1971 Liberation War. After independence, their successor BDR had played role in protecting Bangladesh’s border from enemies.
But some disgruntled members disobeyed the law and tarnished the image of the force through the 2009 mutiny, which took time to be regained.
Justice Siddique said that not only at the headquarters, the mutiny spread out at BOPs and sectors of BDR in 29 districts. At many borders, BDR men abandoned their posts leaving the border unprotected.
The judge added that after the prime minister's speech asking the mutineers to surrender their arms following the incident, they had become nervous. Many mutineers then fled while some jawans surrendered.
He also gave description of the incident from the case documents, witness accounts and confessional statements in the case.
The judge said that the full text of the verdict will be more than 10,000 pages and the judgment part is more than 1,000 pages.
The High Court started holding hearings on the death references and appeals in January 2015. In April this year, the court had kept the verdict as Curia Advisari Vult (CAV) after concluding the hearings.
On November 5, 2013, a Dhaka court sentenced 150 personnel of the BDR and two civilians to death, jailed 161 for life for their involvement in the carnage that killed 74 people, including 57 army officers.
The trial court also handed down rigorous imprisonment to 256 people, mostly BDR soldiers.
The paramilitary force was later renamed Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).