BLOGGER RAJIB KILLING : Two to die, six get different jail terms [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

BLOGGER RAJIB KILLING : Two to die, six get different jail terms

Local January 01, 2016

The Speedy Trial Tribunal-3 in Dhaka on Thursday sentenced two youths to death and jailed six others, including Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani to various terms, in the first ever case of the killing of a self-styled atheist blogger – Ahmed Rajib Haider Shovon – in 2013.
The tribunal, chaired by Sayeed Ahmed, termed the crime ‘a premeditated and cruel killing’ and said ‘the engineer was killed by [would be] engineers’ but no material was produced during trial to confirm that he was killed for his blogs and ideas.
Amid tight security in and around the packed courtroom, the tribunal pronounced the verdict in the presence of seven of the eight accused standing on the dock, barefoot, in bar fetters and handcuffs.
The Judge specified the roles of eight individuals convicted for the crime, and identified Rezwanul Azad Rana, who is absconding since the crime was committed, for plotting the killing and said Faisal Bin Nayeem Dwip had drawn the machete on Rajib.
‘The Islami Chhatra Shibir leader Rana was the main plotter. He led the killing.’
He sentenced both— Rezwanul and Faisal— to death and fined them Tk 50,000.
The tribunal also awarded life terms to Maksudul Hasan Anik and fined him Tk 10,000 for buying the machete. In default, he would serve one more year in jail.
He said there was corroborative evidence and confessional statements of all but one accused, which established there were two teams involved in the crime— one team had gathered information about the victim and watched him and, another team carried out the attack.
The judge jailed Ehsan Reza Rumman, Nayeem Sikdar Erad and Nafis Imtiaz for ten years each and fined them Tk 5,000 each for participating in the crime. In default, they would serve six more months in jail.
Mufti Md Jashim Uddin Rahmani was jailed for five years and fined Tk 2,000 for his sermons which, the tribunal believed, had inspired the intolerant young men to attack the architect. In default, he would serve two more months in jail.
The tribunal said the police accused Jashim for leading the banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team but they could not be established it.
It also jailed Sadman Yasir Mahmud for three years and fined him Tk 2,000 for his involvement in crime. In default, he would serve two more months in the jail.
The judge said 35 out of 55 prosecution witnesses had testified in the case but ‘there is no eyewitness to the killing.’
All the seven accused earlier gave confessional statements admitting to their involvement in the killing.
The tribunal, in the observation, remarked there was no documentary proof that Rajib was a blogger, outside of newspaper claims.
On February 15, 2013, attackers hacked to death the secular blogger, who also an activist of Gono Jagoron Moncho organised for justice for war crimes, in front of his house in the capital’s Mirpur.
Police investigators stated the group inspired by ‘Ansarullah Bangla Team chief’ Mufti Jashim and guided by Rezwanul Azad Rana had killed the blogger for his anti-Islamic writings and ideas.
While delivering the judgement, the judge pointed out the poor investigation into the case and also stated that no materials were produced by the prosecution about Rajib’s blogs that instigated the accused to carry out the attack.
All but Mufti Jashim had been students of North South University, which later dismissed all of the accused.
The judge in the observation criticised people who were getting radicalised and said everyone should show restraint.
None should take the law in their own hand, the judge said, adding, ‘our law enforcing agencies take the law in their own hand and take part in crossfire.’
After the verdict was delivered, the complainant, Nazim Uddin, the physician father of the late blogger who was an architect by profession, rejected the verdict terming it a ‘farce’ while family members of the convicts alleged justice has not been done.
Mufti Jashim smiled on hearing the verdict while all the rest on the dock appeared gloomy.
Nazim told New Age that ‘this verdict is a failure of the judiciary and the tribunal since they [the convicts] are self-confessed killers.’
He said ‘the real incident has not come to fore. This is a farce. None of the accused had spoken about Ansarullah Bangla Team and had rather blamed Shibir [Islami Chhatra Shibir] leader Rezwanul Azad Rana. But he was not captured and has instead been shown as fugitive.’
The family members of the convicts claimed they were innocent and had been implicated without adequate proof.
‘My son was at a wedding ceremony with me when the incident had taken place. And we had been enjoying a week-long wedding of my relative at Jatrabari,’ said Dilruba Nayeem, the mother of death row convict Faisal who was a student of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at the NSU.
The tribunal’s special public prosecutor Mahbubur Rahman said they were not completely satisfied with the verdict and ‘we will give our reaction once we receive the full verdict.’
In August 2013, Mufti Jasim Uddin Rahmani along with 30 others were arrested from a ‘clandestine’ meeting in Barguna and later was named in the case, while the other accused were arrested in different phases in the capital in 2013. All but Sadman Yasir had been in jail since then. Sadman was bailed for a brief time but landed in jail after his bail drew criticism.
The tribunal took 43 days to complete the trial starting on May 21, 2015.
Rajib’s father Nazim Uddin had filed the case with Pallabi police station.
On January 25, 2014, the detectives submitted a charge-sheet accusing eight people, including Mufti Jashimuddin, in the case.
According to the charge-sheet, the seven NSU students had vowed to kill ‘atheist bloggers’ after reading Jasimuddin’s books and following his sermons.
They targeted Rajib ‘for his blog posts under the nickname Thabababa’.
A total of 35 out of 55 prosecution witnesses including — Rajib’s father Nazimuddin, younger brother Newaz Murtaja Haider, seven policemen including three investigation officers, three metropolitan magistrates who had recorded the confessional statements and two medico-legal experts — testified in the case.
At least 11 secular bloggers, including five in 2015, were killed and many others sustained critical injures in the last few years.
Over three dozen secular writers and bloggers reportedly left the country or sought asylum in different states being attacked or to avoid attack.
Gono Jagoron Moncho brought out a protest procession in the Shahbagh area rejecting the verdict and its spokesperson Imran H Sarker termed the verdict a ‘farce.’
Bangladesh Online Activist Forum, a pro-Awami League online based platform, in a statement expressed disappointment over the verdict and said they were sad as the ‘self-confessed killers’ were not being sentenced to death.
They claimed they are also frightened as the plotter, Rezwanul, was still at large.