The light of justice on November 19 completely removed the darkness that had hung over Bangladesh for 34 years following the heinous killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's founding father, as the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence to a dozen killers earlier confirmed by the High Court.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the founding leader of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, generally considered in the country as the father of the Bangladeshi nation. He headed the Awami League, served as the first president of Bangladesh and later became its prime minister.

On Aug 15, 1975, a group of junior army officers invaded the presidential residence with tanks and killed Mujib, his family and the personal staff. Only his daughters Sheikh Hasina Wajed and Sheikh Rehana, who were on a visit to West Germany, were left alive. They were banned from returning to Bangladesh. The coup was planned by disgruntled Awami League colleagues and military officers, which included Mujib's colleague and former confidanté Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, who became his immediate successor.

Sheikh Hasina is currently the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.

Amid an unprecedented tight security on the court premises as well as across the country, a five-member special bench of the Appellate Division delivered the nine-minute "short order" of the judgment around 11:45am in a jam-packed courtroom of the chief justice.

"We are of the view that it is not a case of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny, rather it is a criminal conspiracy to commit the murder of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other members of his family," said Justice Md Tafazzul Islam, the most senior member of the bench, while reading out the order.

This order dismisses the appeal petitions of five convicts against the third judgment of the High Court that handed them and seven others death penalty.

These five, now languishing in jail, had filed the petitions in October 2007 giving five different points to challenge the High Court verdict.

They are: Lt Col (sacked) Syed Faruque Rahman, Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Lt Col (retd) Muhiuddin Ahmed (Artillery), Maj (retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed (lancer) and Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda.

One - Maj. Aziz Pasha - died in Zimbabwe some years ago.

Six criminals have fled the country and are rumoured to be hiding in Africa and other places. They are: Lt Col (dismissed) Khandaker Abdur Rashid, Lt Col (relieved) Shariful Haque Dalim, Lt Col (retd) Nur Chowdhury, Lt Col (retd) AM Rashed Chowdhury, Capt Abdul Mazed and Risalder Moslehuddin Khan.

With the November 19 verdict, their punishment remains valid.

"The appellants having failed to make out a case of extenuating circumstance to commute their sentence of death, we are not inclined to interfere with the sentence of death awarded to the appellants by the learned sessions judge and maintained by the High Court Division," says the Supreme Court verdict.

The other members of the five-member bench were justices Md Abdul Aziz, BK Das, Md Muzammel Hossain and SK Sinha. They heard submissions of the appeals for 29 days beginning on October 5.

When the delivery of the verdict was finished, the courtroom got filled with cheerful buzzes only to be hushed into silence within a few moments. After the nerve-racking silence, some of the relatives of Bangabandhu, including grandson Fazle Noor Taposh, burst into tears.

Soon the judges left the courtroom.

The emotional outburst continued for another 15 minutes. Mujibur's relatives, lawyers, the complainant and investigation officer of the case, and a few Awami League leaders were seen hugging each other, tears still in their eyes. They came out of the room but stayed on the court premises for a while.

"The nation has got justice," Chief State Counsel of the case advocate Anisul Huq told The Daily Star at that moment.

Attorney General advocate Mahbubey Alam said, "This verdict will be considered as the best historic judgment of the nation."

Barrister Abdullah Al-Mamun, who represented the convicts, told The Daily Star, "According to the law, we will file a review petition with the Supreme Court as soon as we get the certified copy of the judgment."

In general, most lawyers considered the verdict to have freed the nation from the shame of killing the father of the nation and set the example that no matter how powerful a killer is, they are not beyond the purview of the law.

According to lawyers, if the review petition fails to produce any result, the convicts could seek the president's mercy.

If the president refuses their mercy petitions, the convicts will get 21 more days before they are hanged within the next week, said defence lawyer barrister Abdullah Al-Mamun.

In case of absconding convicts, whenever one is arrested he will be sent to jail. He will have the right to file a petition with the Supreme Court through the jail. The court may either entertain the petition or reject it. The convict can then seek the president's mercy.
Soon after the verdict, a small group of people chanted slogans and held a rally on the court premises for a short time expressing their joy.

The whole country remained glued to TV sets for live telecasts from the court to hear the final verdict.

Many schools in the capital were kept closed. The traffic movement in the city was unusually thin for any given Thursday.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's personal assistant Mohitul Islam, who had survived the attack by a gang of army officers on the night of August 15, 1975, filed the case for the killings on October 2, 1996.

On January 15, 1997, the charge sheet was filed against 20 living and four dead persons--Khandakar Moshtaque, Mahbubul Alam Chashi, Capt Mustafa and Risalder Sarwar.

As all except the dead were brought to trial, the court examined 61 witnesses and heard submissions for 151 days.

On November 8, 1998, the trial court handed death sentence to 15 of the 20 accused.

On December 14, 2000, a two-member High Court bench gave a split verdict on the trial court's judgment: one judge upheld the death sentences of all 15 convicts while the other upheld that of 10. The judges were also divided on which section of the Code of Criminal Procedure to be followed for the death sentence of one convict.

On April 30, 2001, a third judge of the High Court resolved the matter and finally gave death sentence to 12 killers.