Wrongful arrest: SC orders release of Azmat Ali
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain made the order along with six members of the appellate division of the SC
The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the government to release Azmat Ali, a former school teacher from Jamalpur who was arrested in 2009 even though the president pardoned him in 1991.
The court observed that the decision of sending Azmat Ali to jail was “unjustified,” as the victim had the clemency granted by the president under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain made the order along with six members of the appellate division of the SC.
In June this year, Azmat filed a review petition with the support of the Supreme Court Legal Aid Committee.
The petition was filed with the SC against its verdict in 2010, that had scrapped a High Court judgment which acquitted Azmat Ali from the charge of the case filed for killing an individual named Rezaul Karim in 1987.
The full text of the judgment says, Azmat Ali, son of Tazzat UllahSardar of Sharishabari Upazila in Jamalpur, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by the sessions judge’s court of Jamalpur in 1989, in connection with the case.
The HC acquitted Azmat followed by his appeal in 2005.
The state also filed an appeal with the SC in 2008 challenging the HC verdict. After the state’s appeal, the appellate division on February scrapped the judgement in same year.
Earlier in 1996, petitioner Azmat Ali had been released from jail thanks to presidential clemency.
But, he was again arrested in 2009 and he has been in custody since then.
In 2019, SC’s office sent the full text of the verdict to the concerned court and Jamalpur jail authority for taking necessary steps to release Azmat Ali.