Dhaka: The Appellate Division of Supreme Court issued the copy of the review verdict that upheld the death sentence of Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and two others in a case filed over the grenade attack on ex-British envoy to Bangladesh Anwar Choudhury in 2004.

The copy of the full verdict was released after it was signed all the three members of the Appellate Division bench, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, said SC additional registrar Sabbir Foyez while talking to reporters.

A copy of the verdict will be sent to the court concerned at noon, he said. 

Mufti Hannan’s lawyer MK Bhadra said the convicts will decide whether they will go for presidential mercy after the verdict copy reached to jail.

Earlier, on 19 March, an Appellate Division bench upheld the death sentence of Harkat-ul-Jihad (Huji) chief Mufti Abdul Hannan and two others in the case.

A three-member HC bench, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, passed the order after hearing of the review petition filed by the three death row convicts, clearing the way to execute the death sentence.

On 7 December, 2016, a SC bench headed by Justice SK Sinha upheld the death penalty of the three in the case rejecting the appeal filed by Mufti Hannan and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul seeking a review of the High Court verdict that had upheld their death sentence.

Two Huji men, including its chief Mufti Hannan and Sharif Shahedul Alam alias Bipul, filed the appeal petition before the Appellate Division bench concerned on 14 July, 2016.

On 11 February, 2016, a High Court bench, comprising justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Amir Hossain, delivered the verdict upholding the death sentence of three of the accused handed down by the lower court.

In 2004, the then British High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury came under a grenade while coming out of Hazrat Shahjalal’s shrine in his hometown Sylhet.

The envoy and 40 employees of the Sylhet district administration were injured in the attack.

Assistant Sub-inspector Kamal Uddin died on the spot, while two others Constables Rubel Ahmed and one Habil Miah succumbed to their injuries in a hospital.