Bangladesh Supreme Court

BANGLADESH: SC COMMUTES DEATH PENALTY OF 3 CONVICTS TO LIFE-TERM IMPRISONMENT

September 14, 2021:

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh on 18 August 2021 upheld death sentence of an adult man and commuted three other youths’ death sentence to life-term imprisonment finding them guilty of raping and killing a 13-year-old girl at Daulatpur in Kushtia on 25 March 2004.
A five-member bench chaired by chief justice Syed Mahmud Hossain pronounced the judgement after rejecting Sukur Ali’s appeal, and accepting separate appeals of Sentu, Azanur and Mamun.
Lawyer Raghib Rauf Chowdhury told New Age that Sukur Ali was 23-year-old while the remaining three were aged between 13 to 17 years when they were accused of raping and killing the victim.
The four death-row convicts appealed against the High Court judgement that on 11 May 2014 upheld their death sentence for raping and killing the victim of village Lalalnagar on 25 March 2004.
The Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Kushtia on 4 February 2009 sentenced the five to death.
One of the death-row convicts named Kamrul alias Kamu died awaiting his appeal hearing by the High Court. 
According to the prosecution, convict Sentu who, had an affair with the victim, took her to a nearby tobacco field where the five convicts knifed her to death before raping.
Sentu hired Shukur Ali to kill the victim, according to the prosecution.
The victim’s father Abdul Aziz filed a case against unidentified people on 27 March 2004 after her body was recovered by police from the tobacco filed.       
Lawyer Raghib Rauf appeared for Sentu while lawyer SM Shahjahan and lawyer SM Animul Islam appeared for the other convicts.