{"id":18180,"date":"2021-02-16T06:07:01","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T11:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=18180"},"modified":"2021-02-16T06:07:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T11:07:01","slug":"bangladesh-avijit-roy-murder-five-sentenced-to-die-for-machete-attack-on-blogger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2021\/02\/16\/bangladesh-avijit-roy-murder-five-sentenced-to-die-for-machete-attack-on-blogger\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangladesh Avijit Roy murder: Five sentenced to die for machete attack on blogger"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A court in Bangladesh has sentenced five men to death and one to life in jail for hacking a secular blogger to death six years ago in Dhaka.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Avijit Roy, based in the US and of Bangladeshi origin, was attacked with machetes as he left a book fair in the capital in February 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It was one of a spate of attacks on secular figures, which were blamed on Islamist militants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Roy, an atheist, had angered hardliners<\/a>\u00a0with his writings on religion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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His wife Rafida Ahmed was with him when the attack took place as they left Dhaka University campus. She was critically wounded, but survived.<\/p>\n

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The assault was carried out by a banned group, Ansar al-Islam, which is believed to be linked with al-Qaeda, the court heard.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Two of the group were tried in absentia, including former army major Syed Ziaul Haque, who is accused of leading the attackers. He was sentenced to be hanged for murdering Roy, as were four others: Abu Siddique Sohel, Mozammel Hossain, Arafat Rahman and Akram Hossain, who along with Syed Ziaul Haque is still on the run.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Shafiur Rahman Farabi was given life in jail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Charges against them were proved beyond any doubt. The court gave them the highest punishment,” public prosecutor Golam Sarwar Khan said after the verdict outside the Special Anti-Terrorism Tribunal in Dhaka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lawyers for the defence plan to appeal.<\/p>\n

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Police believe the group were behind the murders of more than a dozen secular activists and bloggers. A string of deadly such attacks took place in Bangladesh between 2013 and 2016, and were blamed on groups inspired by al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The deadliest attack took place on 1 July 2016, when\u00a020 people were killed by gunmen who stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery<\/a>\u00a0in Dhaka. The caf\u00e9 was popular with expats and wealthy locals, and many of the dead were foreigners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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