Earlier on November 5, 2003, another Dhaka court sentenced Aslam to life in jail for possessing illegal firearms and ammunition. Fourteen other criminal cases are also pending against him with different courts in the city, court sources said.

Judge SM Mujibur Rahman of the First Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court handed down the sentence in presence of Aslam and three others at a packed courtroom.

The convicts are Abul, Babul, Shakil alias Shaikhya, Abul Mannan alias Roni, Babu alias Badal and Harun-Ur-Rashid. Of them, Shakil and Babu were present in the court during the delivery of the verdict while Abul, Babul, Mannan and Harun were tried in absentia. Another acquitted Anwaruzzaman alias Anwar is also in the custody.

In his verdict, the judge said that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations against the acquitted while the charges brought against other six were proved. The punishment of the fugitives will be effective from the day of their arrest or surrender, he added.

Earlier, the prosecution and the defence completed their arguments and the court recorded statements of 13 prosecution witnesses.

According to the prosecution, one of the accused, Mannan, called Mohammad Ali out of his house at East Rajabazar in the city's Tejgaon at about 11:30am on March 29, 1996 and took him to a nearby place where his accomplices Shakil, Abul, Babul, Babu and Harun shot him dead.

Victim's elder brother Delwar Hossain filed a murder case against Mannan and five others the same day and the investigation officer pressed charges against Sweden Aslam and seven others on February 10, 1998.

Court sources said, 14 other criminal cases are also pending with different courts in the city against Sweden Aslam.