A Dhaka court on Tuesday sentenced five members of the banned militant organization Ansar al-Islam to death in a case lodged over the murder of writer Avijit Roy.
The same court also sentenced another to life imprisonment.
The death-row-convicts are sacked army Major Syed Mohammad Ziaul Haque alias Zia, Akram Hossain alias Abir, Md Arafat Rahman, Mozammel Hussain alias Simon and Abu Siddique Sohail alias Shakib alias Sajid alias Shahab.
The tribunal sentenced another convict Shafiur Rahman Farabi to life imprisonment and fined him Taka 50 thousand, in default to suffer another two years in jail.
Judge Mujibur Rahman of the Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal pronounced the judgment.
He also fined the convicts Taka 50 thousand each.
Of the convicts, sacked Major Zia and Akram Hossain are still at large and yet to be arrested and were tried in absentia. Other than these two, the remaining four convicts were present at the courtroom during the judgment and were sent to jail with the conviction warrant.
“Victim Avijit Roy laid down his life for freedom of writing and expressing his opinion. Members of banned militant outfit Ansar al-Islam killed Avijit brutally, terming him an atheist. The main aim of killing him was to hinder the public safety, obstruct the freedom of expression and discourage it, so that none can write anything freely and express their opinion in future,” the court said in its observation.
Prosecutor Golam Sarwar Zakir in his reaction welcomed the judgment, saying they are satisfied with the conviction of all the six accused.
Defence counsel Nazrul Islam, however, said they are not satisfied with this verdict and would appeal against this to the High Court.
Rafida Ahmed Bonya, the wife of slain writer Avijit Roy, has expressed discontent with the verdict in the case filed over the gruesome murder of her husband .
Talking to the Bangladesh Post, Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police (Media and Public Relations) Mir Sohel Rana said, “ Bangladesh Police has been able to successfully control militancy activities through proper strategic planning, extraordinary intelligence work and massive operational activities. Currently activities of any such groups are very limited and they are basically online based.”
However, most of their activities and key members are under close surveillance of the units and agencies concerned of Bangladesh police, he added.
A US-based IT professional and online activist, Avijit was the founder of Mukto-mona, a website of progressive writers .
Some machete-wielding assailants attacked Avijit and his wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya near the TSC at the Dhaka University on February 26 in 2015. They were leaving the Ekushey Book Fair when the attack was made.
Two hours after attack, Avijit died at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital. His wife survived. However, she suffered serious injury on fingers of her left hand.
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 submitted 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.
