Published on 12:23 PM, May 28, 2017

Full text of blogger Rajib murder verdict released

Rajib Haider

The High Court today released the full text of its verdict that confirmed death penalty of two convicts in blogger Rajib Haider murder case.

The release of the full verdict has cleared the way for the convicts to move appeals before the Appellate Division of the SC against their convictions and sentence.

The two death row convicts -- Redwanul Azad Rana, Faisal Bin Nayem alias Dweep -- were students of a private university.

The HC bench of Justice Zahangir Hossain Selim and Justice Md Zahangir Hossain today released the 163-page verdict after they signed it.

Earlier on April 2, the judges delivered the judgment confirming the death sentence of two convicts in the sensational case.

Blogger Rajib, who was an activist of Shahbagh movement and used to write against Jamaat-Shibir and war criminals on different blogs under the pseudonym Thaba Baba, was hacked to death near his Mirpur house in the capital on February 15, 2013.

On December 31, 2015, a Dhaka court handed down death penalty to Rana and Dweep while sentencing for different terms in jail to the six people including chief of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), for killing Rajib.

Among the jailed convicts, ABT chief Mufti Jasimuddin Rahmani, 45, was awarded to five years in jail as he was found guilty of provoking Rajib's murder through his sermons.

Five other convicts -- Maksudul Hasan alias Anik, Ehsan Reza Rumman, Nafis Imtiaz, Nayem Sikdar Irad and Sadman Yasir Mahmud -- were also students of a private university in 2013.