The verdict on the death reference and the appeal of the accused in the August 21 grenade attack case on Dhaka's Bangabandhu Avenue will be announced tomorrow, Sunday (December 1).
A High Court bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain will announce the verdict.
On Saturday (November 30), the defendant's lawyer Mohammad Shishir Monir confirmed the matter.
Earlier, on October 23, the death reference and appeal hearing of the grenade attack case was sent to a bench comprising Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain. The death reference and appeal hearing of the case began on October 31. After the hearing, the bench kept the case pending for the announcement of the verdict on November 21.
In the case discussed on October 10, 2010, the trial court sentenced 19 people, including former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar and BNP leader Abdus Salam Pintu, to death. 19 others were sentenced to life imprisonment. Several defendants appealed against the verdict, seeking acquittal, and the hearing ended last Thursday.
The defendants' lawyers said that BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman had no involvement in the August 21 grenade attack.
Incidentally, a grenade attack was carried out on a rally of the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina on August 21, 2004. 24 people, including party leaders and activists, were killed in it. On October 10, 2018, the Dhaka Speedy Trial Tribunal-1 delivered its verdict in the case filed in this incident (murder and explosives case). In the verdict, 19 people, including former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar and former Deputy Minister for Education Abdus Salam Pintu, were sentenced to death.
In addition, the trial court sentenced 19 people, including BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, to life imprisonment and 11 others to various terms of imprisonment and fines. After the verdict, the documents of the two cases, including the trial court's verdict, reached the High Court in 2018, which was registered as a death reference case in the relevant branch.