The prosecution today hoped the trial in five cases over the series blasts in the capital on August 17, 2005 will complete by January next year (2019).

The August 17, 2005 blasts, carried out nationwide by the banned militant outfit Jama’atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), had killed two people and wounded 50 others.

“Eighteen cases were lodged with different police stations in the capital to this end. Verdicts in two of the cases were delivered while final reports in 11 other cases were submitted to the court and five more cases are awaiting verdict,” Public Prosecutor in-Charge of Dhaka Metropolitan Shah Alam Talukder told BSS here.

“A Dhaka court sentenced 10-year imprisonment to a JMB operative and seven years to another one in a series blasts case filed with Tejgaon Police Station while five more operatives were sentenced to 10-year imprisonment in another blast case filed with Bimanbandar (airport) Police Station,” he added.

“The five under trial cases are now at the stage of deposition,” he said, hoping that the trial in the cases would complete by January next.

Replying to a query about the reason of submitting final reports in 11 serial blast cases out of 18, he said, “The final reports in 11 cases were submitted to the court as investigation officers could not probe the incidents due to failure to locate addresses of the accused and the witnesses.”

Police said 159 cases were lodged in different parts of the country relating to the series blasts on August 17, 2005.

Trial in 94 cases has already been completed in which 334 people have been sentenced with different jail terms while trial in 55 cases against 386 JMB operatives is going on, according to available statistics of the police headquarters.

A total of 349 accused in the serial blasts have already been acquitted of the charges, the sources said.

Twenty-seven accused in the serial blasts have already been handed down with death penalty and eight of them have been hanged.