BANGLADESH. 12 SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER

July 24, 2007: twelve people were sentenced to death and eight to life imprisonment by a court in Chittagong, Bangladesh, in the sensational Jan-e-Alam murder case. First Additional District and Sessions Judge Rezaul Karim convicted Aiyub Ali, his son Zahirul Islam and brother Syed Ahmed, Kalimullah and his son Abdul Malek, M Yusuf and his son M Alamgir, Shamsul Islam, Nazimuddin and his brothers Abul Kashem, M Jasimuddin and Nasiruddin of murder. All were tried in absentia, with one other being acquitted due to lack of evidence. According to the prosecution, Mahmudul Haq of Amirabad in Lohagora upazila was killed by eight of the 12 condemned convicts in February 2001.
The convicts stopped Jan-e-Alam, a witness to the Mahmudul Haq murder case, on his way to make his deposition to the court on March 30, 2002. The convicts beat him with rods and then hacked him to death. (Sources: United News of Bangladesh, 24/07/2007)