A Dhaka court has sentenced to death two brothers and another for the kidnapping and murder of O Level student Md Ammar Shamsi of Lalbagh in 2000.
Abdur Rahim Sader, judge of the Speedy Trial Tribunal 4, pronounced the judgement yesterday in presence of the convicts. The tribunal also fined them Tk20,000 each.
The convicts are Alamgir, son of Md Idris from Shahidnagar; Md Ziaur Rahman, son of Firoj Uddin of the same area, and his brother Salahuddin. The tribunal sent them to jail after the verdict.
Name of another charge-sheeted accused Mostafa Almas Bappy, a friend of Ammar, was dropped following an Appellate Division order. Convict Zia was also the victim’s close friend.
When contacted, Ammar’s father Md Toufique Shamsi said that he was not aware of the case proceedings. The Old Dhaka businessman welcomed the verdict, but expressed frustration mentioning that the case had been stalled for a decade due to a High Court stay order.
A student of Dhanmondi Memorial Ideal School, Ammar Shamsi, 19, was kidnapped on October 16, 2000, while going to his friend’s house to attend a birthday party.
According to case statement, the kidnappers took him to Gazipur National Park and strangled him to death the same day. But they later demanded Tk10 lakh as ransom from his brother.
On October 25, the victim’s father agreed to pay the ransom, but one of the kidnappers - Salahuddin - was caught while trying to collect the money. Alamgir, Zia and Bappy were later arrested. The body was recovered from the national park the same day.
On April 13, 2004, the case proceedings were stayed by the High Court following a defence petition against the charge-framing order. The Appellate Division vacated the High Court order on January 20 this year.