5 to die for killing Abhijit

A court here today sentenced five militants to death and one to lifetime imprisonment in a case lodged over murder of blogger and writer Abhijit Roy.

Judge Mujibur Rahman of the Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal handed down the judgement today.The death convicts are – sacked Major Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Zia,

Mozammel Hussain alias Simon, Abu Siddique Sohail alias Shakib alias Sajid  alias Shahab, Akram Hossain alias Abir and Md Arafat Rahman.

The court also fined the death row convicts fifty thousand taka each.

The sole lifetime awardee is Shafiur Rahman Farabi and he was also fined fifty thousand taka, in default, he will have to suffer two years more in prison.

All convicted are the leaders and activists of banned militant outfit  Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).

Sacked Major Zia and Akram Hossain remained fugitive since the murder.

Earlier on February 4, the court set February 16 to pass the verdict as both the prosecution and defence concluded their arguments in the case on that day.

Avijit Roy was hacked by a group of militants near Suhrawardy Udyan in the TSC area of Dhaka University around 9.30 pm on February 26, 2015.

He was taken to Dhaka Medical College (DMC) Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries at about 10.30pm.

On February 27, Avijit’s father, noted educationist Ajoy Roy, filed a murder case with Shahbagh Police Station.

On March 13, 2019, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansari filed the charge-sheet implicating six persons.

On April 11, 2019, Dhaka Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal Judge Mujibur Rahman accepted the charge-sheet against the six accused.