The High Court on Wednesday began hearings on the death references of 14 individuals, including former industries minister and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Matiur Rahman Nizami, former BNP lawmaker and state minister for home Lutfozzaman Babar, and several ex-intelligence officials.
Among the 14 convicts, Nizami was executed in 2016 in separate war crime convictions.
On January 30, 2014, the Metropolitan Special Tribunal-1 in Chattogram sentenced all 14
to death under the Special Powers Act, 1974, for trafficking 10 truckloads of weapons.
The hearing on the death reference and appeals is being conducted by a High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice Nasreen Akter. The hearing was adjourned until Sunday.
Deputy attorney general Sultana Akter Rubi was reading out from the paper book of the reference while SM Shajahan appeared for Babar and intelligence officials.
The list of convicts includes former director generals of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence and National Security Intelligence retired major general Rezzaqul Haider Chowdhury, retired brigadier general Abdur Rahim, retired wing commander Shahabuddin Ahmed, former NSI deputy director retired major Liaquat Hossain, NSI field officer Akbar Hossain Khan, former industries ministry additional secretary Nurul Amin, and the military wing commander of the United Liberation Front of Assam, Paresh Barua.
Abdur Rahim died in custody in 2021, while Paresh Barua remains absconding and was convicted in absentia.
The case stems from the seizure of a massive arms cache, reportedly intended for ULFA, at the Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Ltd jetty on April 2, 2004, as it was being loaded onto trucks. Authorities filed smuggling and arms cases the next day at the Karnaphuli Police Station.
