Bangladesh sentences 19 to death over 2004 attack on PM

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A Bangladesh court sentenced 19 people to death on Wednesday and ordered life in prison for the exiled leader of the main opposition BNP party over a plot to assassinate current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2004.

Tarique Rahman, son of former premier Khaleda Zia, was among 49 people on trial and was charged with criminal conspiracy and multiple counts of murder.

He was however tried in absentia, having fled the country for London in 2008, from where he now leads the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

At least 20 people were killed and over 500 people were injured when assailants threw grenades while Hasina, then in the opposition, was addressing a rally in Dhaka in 2004. Hasina herself was also wounded.

Judge Shahed Nur Uddin on Wednesday ruled the attack was a "conspiracy" mounted by the BNP to wipe out the leadership of Hasina's Awami League party, lawyers quoted him as saying in the courtroom.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina speaks during an interview in New York, US, September 25, 2018. /VCG Photo

The court held that the conspiracy was plotted in Rahman's personal office with militant leaders in attendance.

Two former ministers, including a powerful ex-home minister, and two former heads of the country's powerful intelligence agencies were among those handed the death sentence, prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain told reporters.

A total of 15 Islamist extremists from the banned Harkat-ul Jihad al Islami (HuJI), whose leader was executed in April last year with two others, were also sentenced to death for planning and carrying out the attack.

Prosecutors said former BNP minister Abdus Salam Pintu colluded with HuJI and handed over grenades for the attack.

Both sides have already said they plan to appeal the verdict.

Hossain said the government would go to the Supreme Court to seek the death penalty for Rahman and his party colleagues who received lesser sentences.

Police inspect pedestrians in Dhaka, Bangladesh, October 10, 2018. /VCG Photo

BNP spokesman Fakhrul Islam Alamgir called the verdict "a naked display of political vengeance".

"The judgment was not given in a just way, so we will go for appeal and we believe all of them will be freed without any charges," BNP lawyer Sanaullah Mian told reporters.

The timing of the ruling is especially significant, coming ahead of elections expected for December.

The BNP has been in disarray since Rahman's mother Khaleda Zia - Hasina's erstwhile ally turned archrival - was jailed on corruption charges in February.

"It is a disaster for the BNP, as its de facto chief has been implicated as the main planner and handed lifetime in prison," said Ataur Rahman, a professor of political science at Dhaka University. "There is not enough time for them to be able to absorb this debacle."

BNP activists staged protests in the capital Dhaka and in several towns on Wednesday as police went on high alert across the country, with a bus in the north allegedly fire-bombed.

Death sentences are common in Bangladesh, with hundreds of people on death row. All executions are by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era.

(Cover: Accused are pictured in a van following a verdict in the trial over the 2004 grenade attack, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, October 10, 2018. /VCG Photo)

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Source(s): AFP ,Reuters