The Dhaka High Court has upheld the death sentence of 20 students in the 2019 murder case. These students were found guilty in the murder case of student Abrar Fahad. The prosecutor said that 20 students have been sentenced to death and 5 students have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
Upheld death sentence of 20 students
The Dhaka High Court has upheld the death sentence of 20 students in a murder case in Bangladesh. These students have been convicted for beating their fellow student Abrar Fahad to death in the year 2019. Fahad had posted a Facebook post against the then Sheikh Hasina government. On this, activists of the student organization of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League beat Fahad to death. In this case, the lower court had convicted the accused students in 2021 and sentenced them to death. Now the High Court has also upheld this decision.
Apart from the death sentence to 20 students, the court has also upheld the life sentence of five other students. Fahad’s family has expressed satisfaction over the decision. On the other hand, the defense lawyer said that they will appeal in the higher court. One of the accused in this case, Muntasir, has escaped from jail. All these students were from BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology).
The announcement of punishment took a political turn
This case of punishment of students in Bangladesh is taking a political turn. The reason for this is that all the guilty students were members of BCL (Bangladesh Chhatra League). BCL is the student wing of Sheikh Hasina’s party Awami League. Fahad had criticized the policies of the government in the post due to which he lost his life. This enraged the students of BCL and they attacked him. However, after the case came to light, all of them were expelled from the party.
The convicted students were sentenced to death by a lower court in Dhaka in December 2021. At that time Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League was in power. Five students were sentenced to life imprisonment. Now a bench of Justice Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Anayat Hussain in the High Court has upheld this decision. The bench said that we are satisfied with the decision of the High Court. This decision should be implemented as soon as possible.
Response with the vedict
Fahad’s brother Fayaz said that we did not expect the High Court to give its verdict so soon. We are satisfied with the verdict, although many legal procedures are still pending. Defense lawyer Azizur Rahman Dulu said that he was disappointed with the verdict. He said that we will appeal to the appellate department, we hope to get justice from there.
