Dhaka - Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the appeals of five men convicted in the assassination of the country's founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, upholding a previous death verdict against 12 former soldiers convicted for the murder. A five-judge panel headed by Justice Tafazzul Islam delivered the verdict Thursday, after 29 days of hearings, in a crowded court amid heightened security, state attorney Anisul Haq said.
Five of those convicted are on death row in Dhaka Central Jail while the rest have absconded abroad.
Mujibur, one of Bangladesh's independence heroes, was killed along with most of his family on August 15, 1975 by a group of disgruntled army officers in a military putsch which overthrew the South Asian country's elected government.
The verdict of death by hanging will be carried out in a month unless the convicts file a review petition to the court and seek presidential pardon for their convictions, Haq said.
Quamrul Islam, the state minister for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, said the government hopes to complete the process by January next year.
Attorney General Mahbubye Alam described the judgement a historic one, saying that the country would now get rid of the stigma surrounding the killing of the "father of the nation" 34 years ago.
He said that the convicted men were allowed all privileges to which they were entitled under the law throughout the trial process, which began in 1997.
Mujibur's assassins had been indemnified by subsequent rulers. A murder case was filed only after Mujibur's eldest daughter, Sheikh Hasina Wazed, became prime minister in 1996.
Fifteen officers were originally sentenced to death by a court, but a higher court later acquitted three of them. Seven of the culprits fled abroad.
Authorities earlier put the law enforcement agencies across Bangladesh on high alert to avoid any possible acts of sabotage before and after the final verdict.
Immediately after the Supreme Court verdict several thousand activists of the ruling Awami League party took to the streets asking the government to immediately hang the killers of Sheikh Mujibur.
