SC edict not to go wide of mark

The Supreme Court Tuesday spelt out sermons for both lawyers and journalists not to make observations or news influencing the judicial process during the appeal hearing in the Bangabandhu Murder Case as the proceedings for a second straight day were wrapped up, reports UNB.
Tuesday''s hearing resumed with... submissions made by Barrister Abdullah Al Mamun, the counsel for Maj (retd) Bazlul Huda and Lt Col (retd) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed (Lancer), before a five-member Appellate Division bench constituted to deal with and dispose of the long-pending appeals of the condemned former army officers.
The hearing session will resume today (Wednesday) to pick up the points next along the line laid down in the paper-book on the case history.
After two years'' inordinate delay, the hearing got down underway Monday with the reading out of excerpts from the bulky paper-book containing the whole case documents, including the lodging of the First Information Report (FIR) and all judgments.
The High Court finally affirmed the death sentences against twelve of the accused, acquitting three others, on April 30, 2001.
In November 1998, the trial court, however, sentenced a total of 15 retired and dismissed army personnel for the August 15, 1975 carnage, subject to High Court confirmation.
Earlier during first day''s hearing Monday, Barrister Mamun read the case history from the paper-book before the appeal court.
During the course of reading out, the Appellate Division bench reminded the counsel of limitations confining the deliberations to the five points on which leave was granted for filing appeals against the High Court judgment and the relevant part involving the appellants in order to "avert repetition".
The five points are: whether Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed along with most of his family members as a result of a mutiny, whether the evidences adduced by several witnesses are contradictory, whether delay in filing the First Information Report (FIR) is reasonable as held by the lower court, whether there is any conspiracy behind this murder, and whether disposal of the death references of six accused out of 15 by the 3rd judge in the High Court was correct and legal.
Before daybreak on August 15, 1975, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of the nation, and his family members, except his two daughters - incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, who were fortunately abroad at the time -- were massacred by a splinter group of the country''s armed forces that had changed the course of politics in the newly liberated Bangladesh.