Bangladesh court upholds death sentences for coup

Bangladesh court upholds death sentences for coup

Updated at: 1112 PST, Thursday, November 19, 2009 DHAKA: The Supreme Court rejected final appeals Thursday by five former soldiers sentenced to death in the 1975killing of Bangladesh's independence leader in a military coup, a government attorney said. A five-member jury dismissed the men's plea to commute the penalty in a packed courtroom in capital Dhaka, attorney Anisul Haq said. The five convicted men were in Dhaka Central Jail when the jury dismissed their appeals. They can now petition the country's president for clemency in their last bid for life. In 1998, a Dhaka court sentenced the men to death for the killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led Bangladesh's independence war against Pakistan in 1971. Until then, Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan. The five petitioned the Supreme Court to commute their sentences. Seven others who were also convicted are fugitives abroad, Haq said.