The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday upheld the death sentence of two convicts for murdering of two people includibng Awami League leader and Suvodanga Union Parishad (UP) chairman Golam Rabbani in 2000.
A three-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique pronounced the judgment after hearings appeals of the two convicts Mohammad Abdul Gafur and Faruq alias Fartun.
The Appellate Division, however, commuted death sentences of two other convicts, Mohammad Setabuddin and Saman alias Samad, to life imprisonment.
According to the case documents, the convicts slaughtered Golam Rabbani on January 16, 2000. They killed another man named Ayub Ali as the villagers tried to resist them.
Rajshahi Additional Session Judge's Court-2 in 2005 sentenced six people to death and five to life imprisonment in the case. The High Court in 2010, upheld death sentences of the six convicts but acquitted the five, who were initially sentenced to life imprisonment.
Later, four convicts filed appeals with the Appellate Division while convict Bikash Kumar Sarker was still on run and never appealed against his trial and conviction in absentia.
Another convict Matiur Rahman Montu died while on run.