Bangladesh court sentences 4 Islamists to death for killing blogger

Dhaka, Mar 30 (EFE).- An anti-terror tribunal in northeastern Bangladesh on Wednesday sentenced four Islamists to death for the killing of blogger Ananta Bijoy in 2015.

Judge Nurul Amin Biplob of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal in Sylhet acquitted one accused as the charges against him could not be proved, according to prosecutor Muminur Rahman Titu.

“Among the six accused (…), one died in jail custody. The court handed death sentences to four and acquitted one accused,” Titu told EFE.

Of the four convicts, one faced trial from jail while three others have been absconding, he added.

Bijoy was hacked to death on May 12, 2015, near his residence in Sylhet while on his way to work, accompanied by his sister.

Shafiur Rahman Farabi, the accused who was acquitted, is serving a life term in another case in which he was found guilty of killing Bangladeshi-American writer Avijit Roy in 2015, another prosecutor Somor Bijoy told EFE.

“The court in its verdict said the convicts are religious bigots who killed the victim in connivance with each other,” he said.

The convicted Islamists are believed to be members of the banned outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team – lined to the al-Qaeda terror group -, which claimed responsibility for the murder.

The same militant group has also claimed responsibility for the murders of Avijit, LGBT rights activists Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Tonoy and several other bloggers and publishers.

A Bangladesh court in February 2021 awarded the death sentence to five members of the Islamist outfit, some of whom were later convicted again for the killing of LGBT activists Mannan and Tonoy.

More than 70 people, including bloggers, thinkers, members of religious minorities, and foreigners, were killed in a series of targeted attacks in Bangladesh between 2013 and 2016. The government blamed local militant groups for the killings. EFE

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