The High Court has acquitted former state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar and five other death row inmates accused in the 2004 10-truck arms smuggling case in Chittagong.
The High Court bench comprising Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akter delivered the verdict on Wednesday following hearings on the death reference and appeals in the case.
The court reduced the death sentence of United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) military wing commander Paresh Barua to life imprisonment and commuted the death sentence of six convicts to 10 years in prison, reports UNB.
Moreover, it exempted former National Security Intelligence chief Abdur Rahim from the case.
Deputy Attorney General Sultana Akter Rubi and Assistant Attorney General Md Asif Imran Zeesan represented the state during the hearings.
Earlier, on November 6, hearings were held regarding the death reference and appeals of the accused in the 10-truck arms smuggling case.
The case dates back to April 1, 2004, when authorities seized 10 truckloads of arms at the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited jetty.
Two cases – one under the Arms Act and another under the Special Powers Act – were filed at Karnaphuli police station the following day, naming 50 people as accused in the arms case and 52 in the other.
On January 30, 2014, Chittagong Metropolitan Sessions Judge SM Mujibur Rahman sentenced 14 people to death under the Special Powers Act.
They were also handed life imprisonment and seven years' imprisonment each under two sections of the arms case.
The 14 sentenced to death included former Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami, former state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, ULFA's Paresh Barua, former DGFI director Maj Gen (Retd) Rezzakul Haider Chowdhury and former NSI director general Abdur Rahim.
The charges were related to smuggling under the Special Powers Act.
Of these convicts, Motiur Rahman Nizami was executed in 2016 for crimes against humanity.
