Bangladesh court sentences 26 to death for murder News
Bangladesh court sentences 26 to death for murder

[JURIST] A Bangladesh court in Dhaka sentenced 26 people to death by hanging on Monday after convicting them of murdering seven. Three of those sentenced [Al Jazeera report] to death were senior officers of the country’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) [official website] force. Judge Syed Enayet Hossain convicted all 35 accused of the crimes. The victims had been abducted in April 2014 from a cricket match in Narayanganj, and their bodies were later found floating in a river three days later.

In August UN humans rights experts urged [JURIST report] the government of Bangladesh to repeal the death sentence imposed upon Mir Quasem Ali, an opposition member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party. Also in August the International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh (ICTB) [official website] sentenced [JURIST report] a former member of parliament to death and seven others to life in prison for crimes committed during the 1971 war for independence. In July a Bangladeshi court officially indicted [JURIST report] 41 people with murder stemming from a 2013 garment factory collapse which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 people. In June the ICTB sentenced [JURIST report] Mohibur Rahman to death for his part in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.