The High Court yesterday sentenced three people to life imprisonment in connection with the murder of Commodore (Rtd) Ghulam Rabbani, former managing director of Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ), in 2004.
The court also acquitted an accused and ordered the lower court to retry another accused, who earlier was acquitted, for the killing of Rabbani, who also was a former aide-de-camp (ADC) of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The three convicts to have got life sentence are-- former general manager of the KEPZ Abu Naser Chowdhury and former chief security officer of the KEPZ Humayun Kabir Chowdhury and Md Selim.
The HC ordered the trio, who are currently on bail, to surrender to the lower court in six weeks after receiving the verdict.
It also fined the convicts Tk 50,000 each and said they would have to serve five more years in jail if they failed to do so.
Rabbani, who also had been a vital prosecution witness in both the Bangabandhu murder and the jail killing cases, was shot in the throat by a group of criminals at Muradpur in Chittagong on his way to the KEPZ on April 11, 2004.
AKM Emtajul Islam, former site engineer of the KEPZ, filed an attempt to murder case with Panchlaish Police Station the same day.
Thirteen days later, Rabbani succumbed to his injuries at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok and the case then turned into a murder case.
According to the case records, Rabbani was killed following a conflict between him and a few of his colleagues at the KEPZ over his appointment as its MD, and termination of two employees of the KEPZ before and after his appointment.
After his appointment, Rabbani started an investigation into the allegations of corruption and irregularities brought against the two terminated employees.
A Chittagong court in April, 2005 handed down five years' imprisonment to Abu Naser and Humayun Kabir, life-term imprisonment to Selim, Mohammad Hashim and Abdul Malik Sohel, and acquitted Md Saiful Islam alias Bilai Saiful in the case.
The same year, the convicts appealed to the HC against the verdict while the government filed two revision petitions seeking death penalty for the accused.
Hashim had already been acquitted earlier by the HC while Sohel was acquitted yesterday.
Delivering the short verdict yesterday, the HC bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Akram Hossain Chowdhury asked the lower court to conduct a retrial of Saiful in light of the High Court observations that would be made in the full text of the judgement and sent to the court soon.
The bench also directed Saiful to surrender to the lower court during the retrial.
After the verdict, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told The Daily Star that he had expected death penalty for the convicts.
Whether the government would file an appeal with the Supreme Court seeking death sentences for the accused would be decided after receiving the full text of the verdict, he added.
Md Munsurul Hoque Chowdhury, one of the defence lawyers, said his clients would take the decision on filing an appeal against the HC verdict later.