DHAKA, Aug 28: Bangladesh’s High Court on Thursday confirmed the death sentence of Risaldar Moslemuddin, acquitting the other two condemned fugitives of the charges of killing four top Awami League leaders in Dhaka central jail in the 1975 turmoil.

A High Court bench also acquitted of the charges the dismissed lieutenant colonel Syed Farook Rahman, retired lieutenant colonel Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, retired major Bazlul Huda and retired major AKM Mohiuddin, earlier sentenced to life imprisonment, who appealed against the conviction.

However, the Awami League expressed disappointment over the verdict.In its verdict on the death reference and appeals against the trial court judgement in the 1975 jail killing case, the court also observed that no sufficient evidence was found for the conviction of the other eight sentenced to life imprisonment.

The court, however, did not pass any order on the eight as they had not appealed against the conviction and had gone into hiding.

The acting Awami League president, Zillur Rahman, told reporters that the verdict had disappointed them. “The people would not accept the verdict.”In the long-drawn verdict, delivered in eight working days after hearing the case in 26 working days, the court acquitted dismissed dafadars Marfat Ali Shah and Abul Hashem Mridha of the charges.

The killing, seen as a desperate act by the incumbents of the time, occurred 79 days after the assassination of the country’s founding president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and his family, including his four-year-old child and two daughters-in-law, on Aug 15, 1975. Only two members of his family, Sheikh Hasina and Rehana, survived because they were abroad.