15 Ex-Army Officers Sentenced to Death

A judge convicted and sentenced to death 15 ex-army commanders in the 1975 assassination of the country’s first prime minister, bringing an end to a trial delayed for years by Bangladesh’s bitter and often bloody politics. Four other defendants, including a former junior minister for information, were acquitted in the assassination of Sheik Mujibur Rahman due to insufficient evidence. Rahman was the father of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina Wajed. After taking office in 1996, Sheik Hasina used her power to bring her father’s killers to trial, saying that ensuring justice would help entrench democracy in this volatile country. Thousands of followers of Sheik Mujib, as he is popularly known in Bangladesh, danced in the streets outside the courtroom to celebrate the verdict by Dhaka District Judge Kazi Golam Rasul.