A Dhaka court on Thursday set February 16 for delivering the verdict in the murder case of writer Avijit Roy.
Judge Mojibur Rahman of Dhaka’s Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal set the date.
Earlier the court ended the hearing on closing arguments by the prosecution and the defence. A US-based IT professional and online activist, Avijit was the founder of Mukto-Mona blog .
Some machete-wielding assailants attacked Avijit and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya near the TSC at the Dhaka University on February 26 in 2015 when they were leaving the Amar Ekushey Book Fair.
Two hours after the attack, Avijit died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. His wife survived. However, the fingers of her left hand were severely injured .
On February 27, 2015, Avijitt’s father, prominent educationist Ajay Roy, filed a murder case with Shahbagh police station.
On March 13, 2019, Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate Sarafuzzaman Ansari filed a chargesheet against six people.
On April 11, 2019, Dhaka Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal Judge Mujibur Rahman accepted the chargesheet against the six accused.
On August 1, the judge of the Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal in Dhaka ordered to start the trial by framing charges against the accused.
The accused are Major (sacked) Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Zia, Mozammel Hussain alias Simon, Abu Siddique Sohail alias Shakib alias Sajid alias Shahab, Akram Hossain alias Abir, Md. Arafat Rahman and Shafiur Rahman Farabi.
All of them are leaders of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).
Major Zia and Akram Hossain have been on run.
