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Bangladeshi court upholds death penalty over blogger's murder

Sunday, 02 April 2017 2:57 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 02 April 2017 4:03 PM ]

Bangladeshi police personnel stand guard at the entrance to the Supreme Court premises in Dhaka, May 11, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

A top court in Bangladesh has confirmed the death penalty for two people tied to a banned militant group for the 2013 murder of a blogger.

Judicial officials said the High Court of Bangladesh confirmed the death penalty of the two members of the banned Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) on Sunday. The court also upheld jail sentences for six other people who received prison sentences ranging from three years to life.

Sunday's decision came after appeals were filed challenging the verdicts handed down by a fast-track tribunal in 2015.

Blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider was hacked to death by machete-wielding attackers near his home in the capital, Dhaka, in February 2013.

The High Court said there was no scope to reduce the sentences given the gravity of the crimes. The defendants can appeal the decision at the Supreme Court.

Redwanul Azad Rana and Faisal Bin Nayem, who were given the death penalty, were students of a top private university.

The court said Nayem hacked Haider with meat cleavers in front of his house in Dhaka.

Rana was sentenced to death in absentia as he is still at large.

The two students had been reportedly "inspired" by speeches of Jashim Uddin Rahmani, the leader of a banned militant group. Rahmani has been given five years in prison for abetting the assassination.

Bangladesh police officials escort some of those accused (2L, C, 5R) in the murder of blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider following a verdict at a court in Dhaka on December 31, 2015. (AFP photo)

A number of Bangladeshi writers, bloggers and intellectuals have also been killed in militants attacks in recent years.

Rights activists have called for nationwide protest rallies to demand more protection for writers, publishers and bloggers.

Bangladesh has suffered a wave of attacks on several foreigners and members of religious minorities.

In a deadly siege in July 2016, a band of militants killed more than 20 hostages, including 17 foreigners, in a cafe in Dhaka.

Although many of the terrorist attacks conducted by local extremist groups in Bangladesh in the past year have been claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group and al-Qaeda, the government of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says local radical outfits, particularly the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), have also been responsible.

Authorities reject the notion that global terrorist groups maintain a foothold in the Muslim-majority country of over 160 million people.

Since the bloody July attack in Dhaka, Bangladeshi security forces have stepped up a hunt for militants behind the spate of recent attacks across the country.

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