Bangladesh to hang four people for murdering atheist blogger
Ananta Bijoy Das, whose writings were critical of Islam and other organized religions, was axed to death by a group of masked men in May 2015.
Ananta Bijoy Das, whose writings were critical of Islam and other organized religions, was axed to death by a group of masked men in May 2015.
A Bangladesh anti-terror court on Wednesday sentenced four people to death for the murder of an atheist blogger seven years ago, as the country saw a string of killings of secular and gay activists by suspected Islamist extremists.
Ananta Bijoy Das, 33, whose writings were critical of Islam and other organized religions, was hacked to death by a group of masked men outside his home in the northeastern town of Sylhet. country, in May 2015.
He was a regular writer for the Mukto Mona blog, which was started and hosted by Avijit Roy, a Bangladeshi-born American citizen who was hacked to death by Islamist extremists in the capital Dhaka in February of the same year.
The Special Anti-Terrorism Court in Sylhet found four young men guilty of Das’ murder but acquitted a key Islamist suspect, prompting the blogger’s family to announce they would appeal to a higher court.
Judge Nurul Amin Biplob said the four convicted were not linked to any Islamist extremist groups, but he said Das was murdered because of his anti-religious, progressive and humanist writings, which “irritated extremists”.
They killed him “for the purpose of instilling fear in like-minded scientific and progressive writers,” he said, according to a brief verdict, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
Das was among more than half a dozen bloggers, writers and atheist gay rights activists killed by suspected Islamist extremists in a campaign between 2013 and 2016 that forced many bloggers and secular activists to flee the country. .
A local Islamist group linked to the South Asian branch of al-Qaeda initially claimed most of the killings, a claim denied by Bangladeshi police.
Bangladesh has since launched a massive crackdown on extremists, killing more than 100 suspected Islamist militants, including their top leaders. Hundreds have been arrested.
Bangladesh is an officially secular country and over 90% of its 169 million people are Muslim.
Death sentences are common in Bangladesh, with more than 2,000 people currently on death row. All executions are carried out by hanging, a legacy of the British colonial era.