Bangladesh's attorney general received a death threat Monday that demanded the release of prisoners convicted in the 1975 assassination of the country's founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. An anonymous letter sent to Mahbubey Alam's office at the Supreme Court threatened him and his family if he pursued the case, Alam told reporters.
"Attorney General Mahbubey Alam: The convicts of Mujib murder case are behind bars unjustly. You along with your family will be dead if they are not released within 15 days," he quoted the letter as saying. Alam is representing the state in an appeal hearing on the guilty verdicts of some of the convicts.
Mujib along with several family members were killed in a military putsch on August 15, 1975. A murder case was filed 21 years after his daughter Sheikh Hasina Wazed became prime minister in 1996. A trial court sentenced 12 military officials to death for the killing, and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court is now conducting a hearing on appeal petitions.