**Bangladesh’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences of five ex-army officers convicted of killing the country’s independence leader in 1975.**Legal experts say the court ruling has cleared the way for the five men to be hanged.
The men were convicted of killing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Six other accused are living abroad.
The trial began more than a decade ago and has generated tremendous interest.
“The Supreme Court, headed by the country’s chief justice, has dismissed their final appeals,” news agency AFP quoted Syed Anisul Haque, chief counsel for the state, as saying.
“It is a landmark verdict and we think this will go a long way towards establishing the rule of law in the country,” he said.
The five former army officers could be hanged “at any moment”, Mr Haque added.
“We will decide on the date for the execution as soon as we receive a copy of the Supreme Court order,” additional inspector general of prisons Syed Iftekheruddin was quoted by AFP as saying.
Military coup
Mr Rahman was killed in 1975, just four years after leading Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan.
The killers also murdered the president’s wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law and approximately 20 other relatives and aides as part of a military coup.
Sheikh Hasina, who was re-elected prime minister last December, escaped the massacre only because she was out of the country at the time.
SHEIKH MUJIBUR KILLING
- March 1971: Sheikh Mujibur announces breakaway from East Pakistan and establishment of Bangladesh
- August 1975: Sheikh Mujibur is killed in a coup
- November 1998: Dhaka court orders execution of 15 for his killing. Three later acquitted
- Oct 2001: Trial halts after Khaleda Zia elected prime minister
- August 2007: Sheikh Mujibur’s murder case resumes
- November 2009: Supreme Court rejects appeals by five ex-army officers accused of killing
- January 2010: Supreme Court dismisses five ex-army officers’ final appeals
The five men, who are in prison in the capital, Dhaka, did not deny their role in the death of Mr Rahman, but had said they should be tried in a military rather than a civilian court.
Six fellow plotters, on the run abroad, have also been sentenced to death. A seventh man also found guilty in absentia is thought to have died abroad.
The government the majors helped install passed a law indemnifying their actions and until 1998 they were free men.
But by then Sheikh Hasina had herself become prime minister and the accused were put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to death.
She lost the following elections, and the next government, led by the party which ultimately benefited from the coup, slowed the process down.
But Sheikh Hasina returned to power earlier this year, and made the conclusion of the trial one of her top priorities.