Dhaka, Nov. 19: Bangladesh’s Supreme Court today upheld the death sentences on five former army officers convicted of assassinating Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in a 1975 coup, taking the penultimate step in a 34-year-old saga that has bitterly divided the country.

Bangabandhu Mujib, leader of Bangladesh’s freedom struggle and its Prime Minister, was slain with 15 other members of his family — including his wife, three sons and two daughters-in-law — at his residence on August 15, 1975.

His daughter Sheikh Hasina Wajed, now Prime Minister, and her sister Rehana were abroad at the time of the revolt that ended the nation’s first spell of democracy and set the stage for a series of coups and foiled coups.

“The Prime Minister cried after hearing the verdict. She was overwhelmed with emotion,” said Syed Ashraful Islam, the ruling Awami League’s deputy leader.

A five-member jury dismissed the men’s plea to commute the penalty in a packed, heavily guarded courtroom that burst into cheers after the verdict. The convicts now have only one option: a mercy plea to the President. If they make the appeal, it is likely to be turned down.

“A painful saga has come to an end,” said state attorney Anisul Haque.

Fifteen men, mostly former army officers, were sentenced to death by a Dhaka court in 1998 but the high court reprieved three. Of the remaining 12, six fled, one died abroad and the other five are in prison. Today’s verdict also upheld the death sentences on the six fugitives.

The five on death row are sacked army officers Syed Farook Rahman, Shahriar Rashid Khan, A.K.M. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Muhiuddin Ahmed and Bazlul Huda.

Farook and his brother-in-law Rashid had pulled off an audacious stunt, sending tanks that did not have ammunition to surround Mujib’s house. The bluff worked and the guards froze in fear or fled. Mujib, who came down the stairs to admonish the intruders, was gunned down.

The trial had begun only after Hasina first became Prime Minister in 1996 and removed the legal barriers enacted by post-Mujib military governments to protect the killers.

The process was slow because of legal complications and came to a halt after her rival, Begum Khaleda Zia, came to power in 2001. Last year’s Bangladesh Rifles mutiny was suspected to be partly a ploy by hardliners to topple Hasina and sabotage the trial.