BANGLADESH. FIVE MEN TO HANG FOR MURDER OF SCHOOLGIRL WHO REJECTED MARRIAGE OFFER

July 12, 2005: spurned suitor Imarul, who uses one name, and four other men were sentenced to hang after being convicted of killing a 14 year old girl whose family spurned his offer of marriage. After the family accepted an offer from another man, Imarul and his accomplices broke into the victim's bedroom as she slept and abducted her, court official Abdur Rahman said.
They took the girl, named Runa, to a nearby field where she was found dead the next day with knife wounds to the back of her neck, Rahman said. The five convicted men, aged between 20 and 25, wept as a judge in the western Kushtia district sentenced them to death for the May 2003 killing, Rahman said. Rejection of marriage proposals is often cited as the cause of violent attacks in Bangladesh. A recent study found 16 percent of acid attacks on women were carried out by spurned suitors. (Sources: Agence France Presse, 12/07/2005)