Death warrant issued for Bangabandhu killer Mazed
The execution will take place between 21 and 28 days since issuance of the warrant
A Dhaka court today issued a death warrant for captain (retd) Abdul Mazed, one of the condemned convicts in the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members.
Judge Md Helal Chowdhury of District and Sessions Judge's Court issued the death warrant upon a petition by the state. He read out to Mazed the charges against him and the verdict of the case.
The execution will take place between 21 and 28 days since the issuance of the death warrant.
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However, the convict can seek presidential mercy.
Mazed told the court that he was not involved in the Bangabandhu murders.
The death warrant was sent to the Dhaka Central Jail today afternoon, Mosharraf Hossain Kajal, a prosecutor for the Bangabandhu murder case, told The Business Standard.
Law Minister Anisul Huq, the then chief prosecutor of the trial, said the verdict would be executed between 21 and 28 days from the issuance of the death reference according to the law.
"Now there is no scope for Abdul Mazed to go to court and seek any legal procedure in court," Anisul Huq told The Business Standard. "He has the last scope to seek a presidential clemency."
Because, following the trial court verdict, the case has been disposed of by the High Court and then by the Appellate Division.
A team of the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime unit arrested Mazed from the capital's Mirpur area around 3:30am Tuesday. Later, a Dhaka court sent him to jail.
The trial of Bangabandhu assassination case started in 1997, 22 years after a group of disgruntled army officers assassinated him along with most of his family members on August 15 in 1975 in his Dhamandi-32 residence.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on November 19, 2009 upheld the death penalty of 12 convicted ex-army officers for the assassinations.
Five convicts were executed on January 27 in 2010. They are Syed Faruk Rahman, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Bazlul Huda, AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan.
However, six more self-confessed killers — Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haque Dalim, Noor Chowdhury, Rashed Chowdhury, Abdul Mazed and Moslehuddin Khan — have remained at large for the last four decades.
