Arafat Hasan of DOT
The High Court yesterday accepted forty four appeals for hearing filed by the convicted accused of the August 21 grenade attack cases.
The HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman also stayed the part of the trial court verdict that fined the convicts of the cases.
The court also asked the trail court concerned to submit the records of the cases before the High Court.
The bench passed the order as the appeals filed by the convicts, who are now in jail, were included in its cause list, assistant attorney general Md Yousuf Mahmud Morshed told The Daily Star.
The High court will hold hearing on the appeals after relevant procedure will be completed, he added.
A Dhaka court on October 10 sentenced 19 persons including former state minister and BNP leader Lutfozzaman Babar to death and 19 others including BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman got life imprisonment to life imprisonment in connection with the August 21 grenade attack case.
At least 24 people were killed and around 300 injured in the grisly attack on an Awami League rally on the capital’s Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.
Sheikh Hasina, the then opposition leader in parliament, narrowly escaped the attack with an ear injury. The grenade attack, masterminded by some BNP leaders, is considered to be one of the most shocking and blatant political crimes in the country’s history.