The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday did not put stay order on a High Court verdict that acquitted four death row convicts, sentenced for the killing of eight activists of Bangladesh Chhatra League in Bahaddarhat of Chittagong in 2000.
Justice Hasan Foez Siddique, chamber judge of the top court, passed the order following a petition of the state. So the acquitted persons can be released from jail, Deputy Attorney General Moniruzzaman Rubel told the Dhaka Tribune.
He, however, said after the release of full text of the High Court verdict of April 17, the state would move the Appellate Division by lodging a regular appeal.
The case says activists of Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir opened fire on the members of ruling party’s student front who were on a microbus on July 12, 2000 centring establishment of supremacy on Government Commercial Institute of Chittagong campus.
The shooting killed the eight Chhatra League men including vice-president of the unit Hasibur Rahman Helal.
Sazzad Hossain Khan, Alamgir Kabir, Azam and Md Solaiman were handed down death penalty on March 27, 2008.
Sazzad reportedly fled to India in 2004 but was nabbed in 2012. Procedures are underway to bring him back.
