Dhaka: The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday upheld the High Court (HC) verdict that sentenced a man to death and three others to life term imprisonment in the murder of Saudi Arabian embassy official Khalaf Al-Ali.

A four-member bench of Appellate Division led by acting Chief Justice Md Abdul Wahhab Miah announced the verdict in the morning.

The death convict is Saiful Islam Mamun and the lifers are—Md Al Amin, Akbar Ali Lalu and Rafiqul Islam.

A Dhaka court sentenced five people to death over the murder in 2012.

However, the decision was overturned when the convicts' appeal and death reference was sent to the HC.

In 2013, the HC acquitted fugitive Selim Chowdhury, reduced the sentences of Md Al Amin, Akbar Ali Lalu and Rafiqul Islam to life in prison and upheld the death sentence of Saiful Islam Mamun.

The state filed an appeal to the SC in 2014.

Khalaf Al Ali, 45, a non-diplomatic official with the consular section of the embassy, was shot near his Gulshan residence on the night of March 5, 2012. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital the next day. A murder case was filed with Gulshan police two days after the killing.

The suspects had demanded dollars from the Saudi official in a mugging incident that led to a bloody confrontation. Saiful who was carrying a revolver shot Khalaf and ran away, Al Amin, one of the accused, said in a confessional statement to the CMM court.