Dhaka, Oct 29: A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Thursday sentenced Awami League’s Joint General Secretary Mahbubul Alam Hanif to death for the killing of six people during the July Uprising.
A three-member tribunal led by Justice Nozrul Islam Chowdhury and comprising Justices Md Manjurul Bashid and Nur Mohammad Shahriar Kabir delivered the verdict.
“He will be hanged until death,” Chowdhury ruled after convicting him of killing six people in western Kushtia district during the 2024 violent student-led street protests.
The tribunal simultaneously sentenced to “imprisonment until death” three other Awami League leaders of the district unit on identical charges for their role in taming the protest dubbed the July Uprising that eventually toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government on August 5, 2024, when she fled to India.
All four accused, including Hanif, are absconding. The tribunal also ordered the confiscation of half of their property.
Hanif is the 23rd leader of the now-disbanded Awami League to receive the capital punishment after the ouster of Hasina.
They were all tried in absentia, with Hasina being the first to be sentenced to death on November 17 last year, along with former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
Dozens more politicians and officials under the past government were sentenced to life imprisonment or other jail terms, while scores are facing trial in person or in absentia on different charges.
Hasina and her party leaders have called the tribunal a “kangaroo court” while international rights groups like Amnesty International, US-based Human Rights Watch and prominent jurists questioned the fairness of the trials.
The ouster of the Awami League government installed an interim regime with Muhammad Yunus as its head.
The tribunal’s chief prosecutor Md Aminul Islam welcomed the verdict, describing it as timely.
“The tribunal delivered its verdict today after completing the trial in this crimes against humanity case. Today’s verdict is very timely. Paying tribute to the July martyrs, we welcome the verdict,” he said.
The convicts were defended by state-appointed lawyers. (PTI)
