HC alters lower court verdict

In a major revision to a trial court verdict, the High Court yesterday acquitted one of the five condemned convicts, awarded life term to three others and upheld the death sentence of one in the sensational Saudi embassy official Khalaf Al Ali murder case.
The acquitted, Selim Chowdhury, is on the run while the rest four are behind bars.
The HC upheld the death sentence of Saiful Islam Mamun for killing the 45-year-old Saudi embassy official, who was shot dead near his Gulshan residence in the capital's diplomatic enclave on March 6 last year.
The three convicts, who were sentenced to life term imprisonment by the HC, are Mohammad Al Amin, Rafiqul Islam Khokon and Akbar Ali Lalu.

On December 30 last year, a lower court awarded death penalty to the five in the case.
Yesterday, the HC bench of Justice Moyeenul Islam Chowdhury and Justice Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo came up with the verdict after hearing the death reference and the appeals filed by Al Amin, Khokon, Lalu and Mamun against their convictions handed down by the lower court.
After examining the statements of the witnesses before the trial court, and the documents and pieces of evidence of the case, the HC said it found that Saiful Islam Mamun had shot from a revolver to kill Khalaf, and therefore, it convicted and sentenced him to death.
The HC bench commuted the death sentence of Mohammad Al Amin, Rafiqul Islam Khokon and Akbar Ali Lalu to life term imprisonment as it found that they had participated in the crime but had not shot Khalaf.
Selim Chowdhury was acquitted as the court found no evidence of his involvement in the crime.
Deputy Attorney General Khurshidul Alam told The Daily Star that the government would move an appeal before the Supreme Court seeking death penalty of Al Amin, Khokon, Lalu and Selim.
Meanwhile, defence lawyer Khabir Uddin Bhuiyan said his clients too would appeal to the apex court against their convictions.
He also said though the names of his clients were not mentioned in the first information report, they were shown arrested in the case later.
More than four months after the murder of Khalaf, the Detective Branch of police made a breakthrough in the case in July last year when they recovered the revolver used in the killing from the house of Mamun in Bhasantek of the capital.
The police arrested the four convicts the same month and showed them arrested in the murder case.
In their confessional statements before a magistrate, Al Amin and Lalu said they had killed the Saudi embassy official after failing to realise money from Khalaf. They also named Selim as the fifth person involved in the killing.