Staff Reporter :
The Committee to Protect Journalists has welcomed the judgement in the blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider murder case. He was hacked to death at Mirpur in February 2013.
A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced two students, including fugitive Rezwanul Azad Rana, who was charged in absentia and who was described by police as the mastermind, according to reports. Six others were jailed of different terms.
“The convictions is encouraging as first step in
addressing the violence directed against bloggers in Bangladesh,” said CPJ Asia Research Associate Sumit Galhotra. “
However, until the mastermind has been arrested ,justice remains incomplete. If the government is committed to protect the country’s independent voices, it must act decisively to deliver justice in the murders of other bloggers and ensure the protection of those who remain at risk.”
The court also sentenced Jashim Uddin Rahmani, the leader of banned Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team, to five years in jail for “abetting murder” by inciting students to kill secular bloggers; one student was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder; and four others were jailed for three years on lesser charges, according to news reports. A lawyer for the defendants said that they would file appeal.
Haider, also known as “Thaba Baba,” wrote critically about fundamentalism in religion and had covered mass protests known as the Shahbagh movement shortly before his murder, reports said. In 2015, four other bloggers and a publisher were hacked to death by religious extremists, CPJ research shows. The victim’s families are in wait of justice.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has welcomed the judgement in the blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider murder case. He was hacked to death at Mirpur in February 2013.
A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced two students, including fugitive Rezwanul Azad Rana, who was charged in absentia and who was described by police as the mastermind, according to reports. Six others were jailed of different terms.
“The convictions is encouraging as first step in
addressing the violence directed against bloggers in Bangladesh,” said CPJ Asia Research Associate Sumit Galhotra. “
However, until the mastermind has been arrested ,justice remains incomplete. If the government is committed to protect the country’s independent voices, it must act decisively to deliver justice in the murders of other bloggers and ensure the protection of those who remain at risk.”
The court also sentenced Jashim Uddin Rahmani, the leader of banned Islamist group Ansarullah Bangla Team, to five years in jail for “abetting murder” by inciting students to kill secular bloggers; one student was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder; and four others were jailed for three years on lesser charges, according to news reports. A lawyer for the defendants said that they would file appeal.
Haider, also known as “Thaba Baba,” wrote critically about fundamentalism in religion and had covered mass protests known as the Shahbagh movement shortly before his murder, reports said. In 2015, four other bloggers and a publisher were hacked to death by religious extremists, CPJ research shows. The victim’s families are in wait of justice.
