The High Court has commuted the death sentences of seven convicted militants to life imprisonment in connection with the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in Dhaka city in 2016.
The HC bench of Justice Sahidul Karim and Justice Md Mostafizur Rahman delivered the verdict on Monday (October 30, 2023).
Attorney General AM Amin Uddin and Deputy Attorney General Bashir Ahmed represented the state, while lawyers Ariful Islam and Md. Amimul Ehsan Zubair took part in the hearing on behalf of the defendants.
Lawyer Ariful Islam said that the death reference was brought to the High Court, and an appeal was made for acquittal. The High Court dismissed the death reference and, by partially accepting the appeal, reduced the death sentences of the seven convicted individuals to life imprisonment.
The seven militants whose death sentences were reduced to life imprisonment are- Jahangir Hossain alias Razib Gandhi, Aslam Hossain alias Rash, Abdus Sabur Khan, Rakibul Hasan Reagan, Hadisur Rahman, Shariful Islam alias Khaled and Mamunur Rashid Ripon.
On November 27 in 2020, the Dhaka Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal sentenced the seven to death for their involvement in the Holey Artisan Bakery attack in 2016. The Dhaka court also fined them Tk. 50,000 each. They were also handed prison sentences of different lengths on separate charges. However, one of the accused named Mizanur Rahman was acquitted in the case.
On December 5 of that year, the trial court sent the case to the High Court for a death reference. The case was added to the High Court’s cause list in January this year and hearings began on May 3.
The High Court bench finished the hearings in the case on October 11 and set October 30 as the date for the verdict.
In accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), any death sentences issued by lower courts are subject to review by the High Court before they are finalised.
On the night of July 1 in 2016, during the 12-hour siege of the café, a group of young militants held dozens of people hostage in the Holey Artisan Bakery located in the diplomatic zone at Gulshan in the capital.
The militants stormed into the restaurant with pistols, submachine guns and sharp weapons and killed 22 people, including 17 foreigners and two policemen. At least 50 people were seriously injured in the militant attack.
Those killed included nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, one Bangladesh-born American and two Bangladeshis.
The nine Italians who were killed in the attack are: Cristian Rossi; Marco Tondat; Nadia Benedetti; Adele Puglisi; Simona Monti; Claudia Maria D'Antona; Vincenzo D'Allestro; Maria Rivoli and Claudio Cappelli.
Three Bangladeshis are: Faraaz Ayaaz Hossain and Abinta Kabir, both students at Emory University in the USA, and Ishrat Akhond.
The Indian citizen is Tarushi Jain, 18, who was a student at the University of California, Berkeley.
Five armed men stormed the café, frequented mostly by foreigners, and took the diners as hostage. At one stage, they started killing some of the hostages one by one.
Bangladesh authorities responded with a brutal crackdown on the militants after the gruesome attack. A commando raid eventually took out the militants. Six attackers were also killed and one was arrested. However, two days of national mourning was declared in that time.
Western-style café was known for attracting a diverse crowd of both expatriates and locals in Bangladesh.
