Blogger Rajib murder: HC upholds lower court’s verdict

Staff Correspondent: The High Court (HC) upheld the verdict of a lower court that sentenced two people to death and six others, including the chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), to different jail terms, in a case filed for killing blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider.

The HC bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Jahangir Hossain pronounced the verdict on Sunday.

Earlier on March 27, the HC set today (Sunday) for delivering the verdict on the death reference and appeals in the murder case. On that day, Deputy Attorney General Zahirul Haque Zahir and Assistant Attorney General Atiqul Haque Selim represented the State in the court.

On January 9, the HC kept the murder case waiting for verdict after concluding hearing on the death references and separate appeals filed by the convicts challenging their sentences handed by the trial court.

Hearing on the case started on November 7 last year.

Blogger Ahamed Rajib Haider, an architect by profession, also an activist of Shahbagh movement demanding death penalty to war criminals, was hacked to death at Pallabi in the capital on February 15, 2013.

On December 31, 2015, the Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 of Dhaka handed down death penalty to two people and different jail terms to six others, including the chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), for killing Rajib.

The death row convicts are-- Md Faisal Bin Nayem alias Dweep and former Shibir leader Redwanul Azad Rana.

Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, 45, chief of ABT, was found guilty of provoking Rajib's murder through his sermons and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

Five other convicts -- Maksudul Hasan alias Anik, Ehsan Reza Rumman, Nafis Imtiaz, Nayem Sikdar Irad and Sadman Yasir Mahmud -- were students of North South University in 2013.

Rana, the main suspect in the murder of writer-blogger Avijit Roy, is absconding.

risingbd/DHAKA/Apr 2, 2017/Mehedi/Amirul