Bangladesh
Holey Artisan Attack Holey Artisan attack: 7 militants sentenced to life imprisonment
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, 30 October 2023: The High Court reduced the death sentence of 7 militants to life imprisonment in the case of terrorist attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan. On Monday, October 30, the High Court bench of Justice Sahidul Karim and Justice Md. Mostafizur Rahman announced the verdict.
The accused who received life imprisonment are Jahangir Hossain alias Rajiv Gandhi, Aslam Hossain alias Rash, Abdus Sabur Khan, Rakibul Hasan Reagan, Hadisur Rahman, Shariful Islam alias Khaled and Mamunur Rashid. In the verdict, the court said that the accused will remain in prison without natural death.
Earlier, the verdict was read out at 11:28 am. Md. Mostafizur Rahman, junior judge of the bench, read the short part of the judgment.
Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ahmed, Assistant Attorney General Nirmul Kumar Das were present during the verdict announcement. Besides, advocate Amimul Ehsan Zubair was present for the accused. Earlier, in this case discussed on October 11, the death reference of seven people and the appeal hearing of the defendants ended.
On the night of July 1, 2016, the members of the banned militant organization New JMB (suicide) attacked the Holy Artisan restaurant in Gulshan and killed 20 people including foreign nationals. Two police officers were killed in their firing. Later, five militants were killed in a commando operation.
In the case of this incident, on November 27, 2019, Judge Md. Mojibur Rahman of Dhaka's Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal acquitted one and sentenced seven to death.
When a trial court in a criminal case sentences the accused to death, the High Court's approval is required for the execution of the sentence. For this reason, the concerned judicial court sent all the documents of the case to the High Court according to Section 374 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This is known as death reference. After receiving the document, the death reference wing of the High Court scrutinized and prepared the paper book of the respective case. Accordingly, the death reference was sent to the High Court. Later paper books were prepared.
A total of 20 people including nine Italians, seven Japanese, an Indian, a Bangladeshi-American dual citizen and two Bangladeshis were killed in this attack, one of the most brutal in the country's history. Banani Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Salauddin Ahmed and Assistant Commissioner of Police Rabiul Islam lost their lives in this incident.
