The Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Wednesday sentenced 29 more leaders and activists of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its associate bodies to different jail terms in three violence cases.
Dhaka metropolitan magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury sentenced 20 leaders and activists of the BNP to different terms of imprisonment in a case filed with the Khilkhet police station on charges of violence in 2018.
The court sentenced 13 out of the 20 accused to four years’ imprisonment and fined Tk 6,000 each, in default of which, they would have to serve 30 more days in jail.
The 13 convicts are Haji SM Fazlul Haque, Akhtar Hossain, Mobarak Hossain Dewan, Zahir Uddin Babu, Mizanur Rahman Renu, Sohrab Hossain Swapan, Saykatul Islam, Shamsul Alam, Majnu Darji, Rezaul Member, Mujibar Member, Nazrul Islam and Abdul Karim.
The court also sentenced seven others to two years in jail in the same case.
The convicts included Shahidul Islam Khokon, Nurul Islam Murad, Shamim Mollah, Manik Mia, Sakhawat Hossain, and Anwar Hossain.
The court, however, acquitted 14 others accused in the case, as the charges were not proved against them.
Meanwhile, the court sentenced six BNP people to six years’ imprisonment under three sections of the Penal Code in another case filed with the same police station on charges of violence.
The punishment under the three sections, however, will run concurrently, as the convicts will have to serve jail for two years in the case.
The convicts are Akhter Hossain, Mobarak Hossain Dewan, Mizanur Rahman Renu, Noore Alam Tuhin, Zakir Hossain Liton, and Didar Hossain.
The court also acquitted 23 accused persons, as the charges were not proved against them.
Both cases were filed with the Khilkhet police station in September 2018 on charges of violence.
Meanwhile, magistrate Rajesh Chowdhury also sentenced three BNP people to three years’ imprisonment in a case filed with the Kotwali police station.
The convicts are Shahadat Hossain Khan, Shahidul Islam and Jewel Mridha.
The court also acquitted three others accused as the charges were not proved against them in the case.
Police filed the case against the BNP people in January 2015.
With the latest conviction in the three cases, at least 1,571 opposition political leaders and activists, mostly from the BNP, have been awarded jail terms in different cases by different courts in Dhaka between August 1 and December 27, according to lawyers and court officials.
The disposal of what the BNP called political cases has intensified after prime minister Sheikh Hasina, at a programme on October 21, asked lawyers to take prompt measures for quick disposal of the cases related to arson attacks.
Most of the cases that ended in the conviction of the opposition people were filed either by the police or by supporters of the ruling Awami League between 2013 and 2018.
BNP leaders and lawyers also accused the ruling AL government of hastening the trial of the cases ahead of the January 7 national election.
A High Court verdict pronounced in 2018 and published in this October barred people jailed for two years or more from joining parliamentary elections.
