DHAKA, Oct 20: The Dhaka metropolitan sessions judge court on Wednesday awarded death penalty to three former army personnel and life imprisonment to 12 former army officers for killing four top-level Awami League leaders inside the Dhaka central jail on November 3, 1975.

The court acquitted four politicians; Shah Moazzem Hossain, KM Obaidur Rahman (an MP of the ruling BNP), Taheruddin Thakur and Nurul Islam Manzur, and a serving additional secretary in the Foreign Ministry, Major (retd) Khairuzzaman.

The politicians concerned, all Awami League leaders at the time, had later joined, as state ministers, the cabinet of Khandaker Mustaque Ahmed, another senior AL leader who headed the government formed after the murder of former President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975. Shah Moazzem Hossain is presently a presidium member of the Jatiya Party headed by H M Ershad, and Obaidur Rahman is a member of the central standing committee of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

However, Risalder Moslemuddin, Dafadar Marfat Ali Shah and Dafadar Abul Hashem Mridha - all are fugitives - have been sentenced to death as, according to the verdict, the charges against them have been proved beyond doubt. Risalder Moslemuddin got double death sentences, as he has already been condemned to death in the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman murder case. His death sentence has already been confirmed by the high court. The two others, who were also accused in the Mujib murder case, were acquitted of the charge in 1998.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Matiur Rahman pronounced the judgement at 12:22pm on Wednesday at a makeshift courtroom in front of Dhaka Central Jail after two deferral sof the verdict.

The judgment came after examining 64 prosecution witnesses, out 75 short-listed PWs, in 283 working days. Awami League leaders Abdus Samad Azad MP and Mohammad Nasim MP, son of jail-killing victim Mansur Ali, were among the witnesses. The authorities put up a security bulwark around the court and its adjacent areas.

Former army officers Lt-Col Syed Faruqur Rahman, Lt-Col Khandoker Abdur Rashid, Lt-Col Shariful Huq Dalim, Lt-Col SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Lt-Col AM Rashed Chowdhury, Lt-Col Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major Bazlul Huda, Major Ahmed Sharful Hossain, Major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed, Captain Abdul Majed, Captain Kismat Hashem and Captain Nazmul Hossain Ansar have been sentenced for life imprisonment, as, according to the verdict, the charges of their abetment in the killing have been proved without any doubt.

Of the lifers, Lt-Col Syed Faruqur Rahman, Lt-Col Khandoker Abdur Rashid, Lt-Col Shariful Huq Dalim, Lt-Col SHMB Noor Chowdhury, Lt-Col AM Rashed Chowdhury, Lt-Col Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Major Bazlul Huda, Major AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Capt Abdul Majed had earlier been condemned to death for the murder of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family on August 15, 1975.

Their death sentences have been confirmed by the high court and appeals of Faruque, Shahriar and Huda, who are in custody, against the high court judgement are now pending with the Appellate Division of the supreme court.

Kismat Hashem, Nazmul Hossain Ansar and Ahmed Sharful Hossain had also been awarded death sentences by the trial court in the Bangabandhu murder case, but later they were acquitted from the charges by the high court.

Of the convicts, only three- Faruque, Shahriar and Huda- are in custody while the others have long been hiding abroad.

In the early hours of November 3, 1975, the assailants stormed into Dhaka Central Jail and gunned downed Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M Mansur Ali and AHM Qamaruzzaman who led the war of independence in 1971. Syed Nazrul was acting president of the Mujib Nagar government in exile, Tajuddin was prime minister and Qamaruzzaman and Mansur Ali were members of the cabinet.

A murder case was filed the following day -November 4, 1975- but it remained shelved for more than two decades until Awami League returned to power in 1996 and revived the case. The trial began on April 12, 2001. The judgment was deferred twice for reported illness of the judge.