A Dhaka metropolitan magistrate court on Tuesday sentenced 11 people including Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader ATM Azharul Islam to two years’ imprisonment in a violence case filed with Motijheel Police Station in 2010.
Magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury handed down the verdict in the presence of Azharul, who was earlier sentenced to death on charges of offences against humanity, but the ten other convicts went into hiding after getting bail in the case.
The other convicts are Mobarak Hossain, Hasan Al Mamun, Abu Taher Mejbah, Jahangir, Ibrahim, Saiful Islam, Md Jarif, Abul Kashem, Ashrafuzzaman, and Redwan.
The convicts were sentenced to six months in jail for unlawful gathering and 18 months for torching vehicles during a political programme on November 13, 2010, said defence lawyer Abdur Razzak.
 The court also fined them Tk 2000 each, in default of which they will serve 14 days more in prison.
The magistrate, however, acquitted seven others, saying that their involvement in the incident was not proven in the case.
On November 30, 2023, the court framed charges against the accused in the case, and a total of four prosecution witnesses, including the complainant of the case, testified in the case.
According to the case, it was alleged that a group of Jamaat leaders and its front organisations led by Azhar brought out a procession in front of Malibagh’s Sohag Paribahan bus stand and torched vehicles during hartal.
Later, police filed a case against Azhar and 17 others with Motijheel Police Station, while police submitted a charge sheet against Azhar and 17 others on June 30, 2012.