Dhaka: Twenty six people, including a former city councillor extradited from India and three senior officers from Bangladesh's elite security force, were on Monday sentenced to death for brutal murders of seven persons in Narayanganj in 2014.
"They (26 convicts) shall be hanged by neck until they are dead," said Narayanganj's District and Sessions Judge Sayed Enayet Hossain as the convicts were brought to the dock under heavy security vigil.
Former Narayanganj councillor Nur Hossain and former Bangladesh Army Lt Col Tarek Sayeed are among the 26 persons given the death penalty for the 2014 Narayanganj multiple murders.
Sayeed, the son-in-law of a cabinet minister of the government, was the senior-most of the three officers who were serving as the Rapid Action Battilion (RAB) commander in Narayanganj during the murders. The two others were an army major and a navy lieutenant commander, Arif Hossain and MM Rana, who were serving under his command in the elite crime busting unit.
Twenty three accused who were given death were sentenced in absentia. Nine others have been given various terms in prison. The court of Narayanganj's District and Sessions Judge delivered the verdict.
Hossain was extradited from India. He had fled the country to evade the trial. He was the mastermind of the murder of seven persons. West Bengal police arrested Hossain shortly after he fled the country. Border Security Force men handed Hossain over to Border Guard Bangladesh on November 12, 2015 after he was freed from a jail in West Bengal on a court order.
Hossain allegedly bribed several officers of RAB, which is mainly commanded by army officers on deputation, for carrying out the murders. Both Islam and Hossain belonged to the ruling Awami League.
The verdict was delivered nearly a year after the court indicted 35 people, including 25 RAB personnel.
Hossain had earlier planned to murder of fellow councillor alone over the dominance of parts of the port town. But, they said, the derailed RAB men also kidnapped and killed the lawyer fearing that he might have speculated the plot.
The victims were administered lethal injections inside a vehicle and the bodies were thrown to the river after getting their stomach slit. The other victims were the two drivers of the councillor and the lawyer who were driving their cars at the time of their near simultaneous abduction and the associates of the assassinated councillor who were accompanying him during the kidnapping.
The convicts were whisked away from the courtroom as the verdict was delivered to await subsequent procedures in jail but under the Bangladesh law their death penalties must be endorsed by the High Court.
