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Aug 21 grenade attack case appeal hearing starts this year

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Update: 2019-08-21 16:09:29
Aug 21 grenade attack case appeal hearing starts this year

DHAKA: Law Minister Anisul Huq on Wednesday said the appeal hearing in August 21 grenade attack case will begin this year.

“The appeal hearing in the August 21 grenade attack case will start within the next two to four months and the process to bring fugitive convicts back is underway," he told the reporters at the Secretariat.

The verdict’s paper book is being prepared and it’ll be finalized very soon, the minister added.

Anisul Huq further said, “The process to bring them back is on but there’s some complexity but we hope that it will be possible for us to bring them back to execute this judgment.”

On August 21, 2004, Islamist militants launched a heinous grenade attack on a rally of the then opposition Awami League at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka.

The plot failed as Sheikh Hasina survived the attack narrowly because some of her party leaders protected her by forming a human shield around her. However, 24 people were killed, including AL Women Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman, and over 400 were injured in the grisly attack.

Later on October 10, 2018, a special tribunal in Dhaka awarded death penalty to 19 people including former junior home minister Lutfuzzaman Babar and life imprisonment to 19 others including Tarique Rahman, son of ex-premier Khaleda Zia, in connection with the deadly grenade attack on August 21, 2004 that left 24 dead and hundreds injured.

Regarding the progress of subsequent proceedings of the case, the law minister said that if the trial court awarded death penalty to someone, the verdict would go to the High Court Division as a death reference under Article 370 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The law minister said, "We will see from the prosecution that the work of making this paperbook is done as soon as possible. It’s taking time as testimonies of 225 witnesses were recorded. However, we hope the appeal hearing will start within this year.”

BDST: 1607 HRS, AUG 21, 2019
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