The fourth verdict in cases relating to the February 2009 rebellion at the headquarter of Border Guard Bangladesh, formally Bangladesh Rifles, in Dhaka will be delivered today.
The Special Court-7 chaired by BGB director general Major General Rafiqul Islam on May 26 set the date for delivering judgment in a case against 666 accused soldiers of 24 Border Guard Battalion and its attached units.
After 46 working days of the proceedings, the court chair had said that the verdict would be delivered on June 27 at the Durbar Hall at Pilkhana headquarter of BGB.
Before fixing the date of verdict, all but 32 who pleaded guilty completed their submissions and sought justice from the court considering their financial conditions, service records and, in some cases, the freedom fighters' certificates of their parents and relatives.
The prosecutor, Major Khan Mohammad Alauddin, also the commanding officer of the unit, had completed the final arguments against the accused soldiers on May 22 and called for highest punishment under the Bangladesh Rifles Order 1972.
Four freedom fighters were also under trial in the case.
A number of accused soldiers had claimed themselves to be freedom fighters but after verifying the certificates, only four of them had been found to be freedom fighters, said Major Alauddin.
Besides, 46 accused soldiers submitted freedom fighters' certificates of their close relatives, including father, grandfather and fathers-in-law.
The soldiers were charged with disobeying the command of the then BDR director general Major General Shakil Ahmed, and leaving the Durbar Hall during the annual congress on February 25, 2009, the first day of the mutiny.
In the mutiny, 75 people, including 57 army officers on deputation and seven civilians, were killed. The BDR director general and his wife were among those brutally killed by the soldiers.
The allegations brought against the accused include showing solidarity with the mutineers, rising in arms, staying inactive by not preventing the mutiny, and failure to control unruly subordinates.
Some 57 prosecution witnesses — most of them currently employed in BGB — made depositions against the accused who cross-examined the witnesses.
The prosecution also produced relevant documents, including the lists of mobile calls made by the accused during the mutiny and medical certificates of the accused issued by the military officers soon after the mutiny stopped.
So far 2,197 out of 6,052 under-trial soldiers have been sentenced in 48 cases, including 46 cases outside Dhaka, by special courts on charge of their involvement in February 2009 mutiny.
Sixty-three soldiers have so far been acquitted of the charges by the different specials courts.
Source : New Age
