Death sentences upheld

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DHAKA, March 19, (Agencies): Bangladesh’s Supreme Court rejected a final appeal on Sunday by a leading militant and two others against death sentences imposed over a grenade attack on the British ambassador in 2004, lawyers said, meaning they could be hanged at any time.

Three militants, including Mufti Abdul Hannan, the head of the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami group, were convicted and sentenced to death in 2008. Three people were killed in the May 21, 2004, attack and about 50 wounded, including then British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury, who was hit in the leg.

A panel of three judges headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha rejected the petition that sought a review of the death sentences, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said. “Now there is no legal bar to hang them, unless they seek clemency from the president and the president pardons them,” Alam told reporters. Defence lawyer Nikhil Kumar Saha said: “It is up to them whether they will seek clemency from the president or not.” The Supreme court upheld their death sentences last year.

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