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The court sentenced five members of the banned militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) to death and fined them 50,000 taka in the murder case of blogger and writer Abhijit Roy. Another defendant, Shafiur Rahman Farabi, was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined 50,000 taka and another two years in prison for non-payment. The verdict in the case was announced on Tuesday (February 18). However, Abhijit’s wife, Bonya Ahmed, could not be satisfied with the verdict. He responded to a post written in English on his verified Facebook page after the verdict was announced.
Bonya Ahmed said in her post: “After six years of hesitation and delay, we got a verdict today. In 2015, Abhijit and I went to Bangladesh to participate in a book fair. There he was to publish two books. We were attacked by militants and Abhijit died, somehow I survived. The death march continued for another year.
“The court has given its verdict today,” he said. The court was judging whether the attackers killed Abhijit for writing books and blogs on science, philosophy and religion. This verdict is not an end for me or my family. I never expected that. None of the investigators on this case have contacted me in the last six years. Although I am an eyewitness and a victim of the attack. In January, the state attorney publicly lied saying he did not want to testify. The fact is that no government official or prosecutor in Bangladesh has contacted me.
On the verdict, Bonya Ahmed mentioned in a Facebook post, “The two leaders of the militant group that attacked us, Syed Ziaul Haque (the dismissed Major Zia) and Akram Hossain, could never be subjected to the law.” After the verdict in the murder case of publisher Dipan last week, we learned that Haq was a free-spirited Bangladeshi writer who had been plotting to assassinate publishers for six months after the attack on us. However, the government of Bangladesh has not made them subject to the law.
He wrote: ‘In today’s civilized country, nobody can get away with extrajudicial executions. But in 2016, the Bangladesh police extrajudicially killed Mukul Rana Sharif, a high-ranking member of a militant group called Crossfire, who was a member of the militant group that attacked us. Sharif was in police custody before he died, why did he die?
“A lot of money was provided in 2015 to kill bloggers, editors and homosexuals,” said one of the killers in the Dipan murder case. I want to know, has anyone investigated this money? What will happen to this verdict if we don’t know where the money came from? Or who was the mastermind behind this murder?
Bonya Ahmed said: ‘On February 26, 2015, Abhijit and I received an invitation from a group of science writers. Those who were the organizers waited for us a few hours. We finally met them at night. After that ceremony we were attacked and Abhijit was killed. The event organizers were questioned, but what was the result?
He added: “There can be no justice for killing extremists or killing bloggers, editors and homosexuals by ignoring the rise of extremists and punishing a few.” So this verdict will not satisfy my family or yours.
Read more
Five people sentenced to death in the Abhijit murder case
The judge said upon observing the verdict
This verdict is based solely on the testimony of the investigating officer: the accused
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