Ramna bomb attack: HC commutes sentences of 7 convicts

The High Court (HC) has commuted the sentences of seven death row convicts in the case filed over the Ramna bomb attack 24 years ago.

One of them has been sentenced to life in prison and the remaining six were sentenced to 10 years in prison in the new verdict.

The HC bench of justice Mostafa Zaman Islam and justice Nasrin Akter passed the order. Following the hearing of the death reference of the accused, their appeal and jail appeal, the HC started delivering the verdict on 8 May.

After reading out the initial part of the verdict, the court scheduled 13 May for delivering the complete verdict in the case.

The sentence of former deputy minister Abdus Salam Pintu’s brother Md Tajuddin, who was sentenced to death by the trial court, has been reduced to life in prison.

Another death row convict in the case Mufti Abdul Hannan has already been executed in another case – Sylhet grenade attack case. The HC has declared his appeal as finished.

The HC bench upheld the trial court verdict of life in prison for accused Shahadatullah Jewel.

The bench commuted the trial court verdict of life imprisonment to 10 years behind the bar for three of the accused. The court dismissed the appeal of the two other accused in the case as they died.

On 14 April, 2001, a bomb attack occurred during Pahela Baishakh celebrations at Ramna Batamul, killing nine people on the spot and another in the hospital later. The case filed over the incident became widely known as the Ramna Batamul bombing case.

Following the trial court's verdict, the case was referred to the High Court in 2014 for approval of the death sentences (death reference). Meanwhile, the convicted prisoners filed jail appeals and regular appeals. The death reference and appeals were taken up for hearing by the same High Court bench on 8 December last year. The hearing started with a paper book presentation.

Representing the accused were senior lawyers SM Shahjahan and Sarwar Ahmed. Lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir represented two of the accused, assisted by Zayed Bin Amjad. Deputy attorney general Sultana Akter and assistant attorney general Md Asif Imran stood for the state in the hearing.

On 23 June, 2014, judge Ruhul Amin of the Dhaka Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court sentenced eight people, including Mufti Hannan, to death, and six others to life imprisonment in the case.