Court: 26 to hang for Narayanganj abductions, murders

Three senior officers from elite security forces among those to be hanged over crimes in Narayanganj, court decides.

Bangladesh
Nur Hossain has been accused of paying paramilitary men to kill a political and business rival, Nazrul Islam in April 2014 [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera] [Al Jazeera]

A Bangladesh court sentenced 26 people, including three senior officers from the country’s elite security force, to death on Monday after convicting them of murdering seven people who were abducted outside a cricket stadium.

The bodies of the victims were found floating in a river in April 2014, three days after witnesses reported seeing them being bundled into an unmarked van outside the stadium in the central city of Narayanganj.

READ MORE: Bangladesh forces under scrutiny for killings

District and Sessions Judge Syed Enayet Hossain convicted all 35 accused in the case which has gripped Bangladesh, including 25 members of the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) force, lawyers said. Twenty-six were sentenced to death by hanging.

Bangladesh, India and Indonesia all resumed executions in 2015, according to UK-based rights group Amnesty International. 

In 2015, Bangladesh executed at least four people, the rights group said in a report, adding that at least 197 were sentenced to death that year.

Investigators found that former army major Arif Hossain was on the spot when the killings took place late on April 27, 2014 [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera]
Investigators found that former army major Arif Hossain was on the spot when the killings took place late on April 27, 2014 [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera]
Source: News Agencies