All death penalties by martial court after 15 August 1975 can be termed as killings: AL Leaders

All death penalties by martial court after 15 August 1975 can be termed as killings: AL Leaders

Senior Awami League leader Suranjit Sengupta on Saturday said if a martial court is termed a “Kangaroo court”, then all death penalties awarded after the August 15 carnage in 1975 will be considered as killings.“Cases can be lodged for such killings in this regard,” he opined. Suranjit, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry, made the observations in reply to the recent remarks of BNP Standing Committee Member Moudud Ahmed. Terming the martial court a “kangaroo court”, former law minister Moudud on Friday said the clemency granted to Jhintu by former president Iajuddin Ahmed was a case in the marital court. Suranjit was addressing a discussion meeting organised by Bangabandhu and Jatiya Char Neta Parishad at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity (DRU) in the city marking the 86th birth anniversary of the first prime minister of Bangladesh Tajuddin Ahmed. “Moudud Ahmed admitted that the marital court was the kangaroo court. If the capital punishment awarded to Jhintu by the kangaroo court is illegal, then all the executions by the martial court after 1975 will be illegal. All these will be considered as killings and cases can be filed in this connection,” Suranjit said. “If the words of Moudud Ahmed are right, the martial law should be termed ‘the jungle law’ and those who ruled the country after 1975 like the regimes of Zia, Sayem and Satter as well as all the martial rulers were illegal and their tenures were also illegal. The Fifth Amendment was illegal.

The minister-ship of Moudud also was illegal,” he added. The AL leader criticised Moudud for his comments that clemency awarded to Jhintu and AHM Biplob was different. “Biplob surrendered to the court showing his respect to the law. But Jhintu remained absconding for 22 years,” Suranjit added. State minister for law Qamrul Islam has alleged that senior BNP leader Moudud Ahmed was the man who had implicated A H M Biplob in the murder case. On Saturday Qamrul said, "After Nurul Islam killing in 2000, former president of the Laxmipur Lawyers' Association, Tarek Uddin Mahmud Chowdhury, filed the first case as a plaintiff mentioning none as accused. But following a petition by Moudud Ahmed subsequently, 10 more people including Taher, his wife and three sons, were made accused." "Later, another 24 persons were made accused. Moudud had exercised his influenced in the case as the then law minister." As a result, this verdict came, he said, adding that "all judgements are not real judgements"