Staff Reporter:
The High Court (HC) may deliver its verdict on the death references and appeals related to the 21 August grenade attack cases any day, said sources.
The HC bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain kept the death references (trial court documents for confirmation of death sentences), and the appeals, filed by the convicted accused in the cases, as curia advisari vult (refers to the verdict will be delivered any day), following the completion of the hearing on these matters, Deputy Attorney General Md Jashim Sarker told reporters.
The cases were filed after a deadly grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue in the capital that claimed 24 lives and left around 300 injured.
The then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina, who later assumed office and served as prime minister for 15 consecutive years before leaving the country in the face of a student-led mass uprising on 5 August, narrowly escaped the attack on 21 August 2004.
A Dhaka court on 10 October 2018 sentenced 19 people, including former BNP state minister for home affairs Lutfozzaman Babar, to death in the two cases filed over the grenade attacks.
Nineteen others including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, were awarded life imprisonment while 11 people were handed different terms in prison.
Eighteen of the convicted accused are absconding and 31 are in jail.
The HC bench led by Justice AKM Asaduzzaman on 31 October this year started a fresh hearing on the death references and appeals of the 21 August grenade attack cases.
Earlier, another HC bench composed of Justice Shahidul Karim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman held hearings on death references and appeals of the same cases.
