A Noakhali court has sentenced 10 people to death and six others to life imprisonment in a case over the gang rape of a woman in the district’s Subarnachar Upazila on the day of the 11th national election in 2018.
Expelled Subarnachar Awami League leader Ruhul Amin is among the death row convicts.
Judge Fatema Ferdous of the Noakhali Woman and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal-2 handed down the punishment in the presence of 15 convicts at around 12:30pm on Monday.
Ruhul and another expelled Subarnachar AL leader Md Hasan Ali Bulu directly influenced and took part in the incident, the judge said in the verdict.
The court also fined each of the convicts Tk 50,000. Each of them will have to serve an additional two years in prison if they fail to pay the fine.
The other death row convicts are Md Sohel, Swapan, Ibrahim Khalil Bechu, Abul Hossain Abu, Md Salauddin, Md Jashim Uddin, Md Murad, and Md Jamal alias Henju Majhi.
Those awarded life imprisonment are Md Hanif, Md Chowdhury, Md Badshah Alam Basu, Mosharraf Hossain, and Md Mintu alias Helal.
Of them, Mintu was tried in absentia as he has been on the run since the case was filed. The court on Monday issued a warrant for him and ordered his arrest as soon as possible.
The plaintiff, their family and lawyers said they were satisfied with the verdict and expressed gratitude to the state.
However, defence lawyer Harunur Rashid Halder expressed dissatisfaction with the judgment and said they would appeal against it at the High Court.
According to case details, a woman, then in her 40s, was beaten and gang raped on the night of December 30, 2018, at her home in Modhyabagya village of Subarnachar Upazila after the accused tied up her husband and children.
The woman, a mother of four, alleged that the now convicts violated her as she did not cast her vote for a candidate as per their wish and had an altercation at a polling centre at Subarnachar.
Her husband filed the case at the Charjabbar Police Station the next day.
The Detective Branch of Police (DB) submitted the chargesheet accusing 16 suspects, including Ruhul Amin, on March 27, 2019.
Since then, the trial has been continuing. On November 29, 2023, after arguments ended, the court had fixed January 16, 2024, to deliver the verdict. However, as the writing of the judgment was not complete by that date, the court then rescheduled the verdict date to February 5.
During the trial, 23 witnesses testified for the plaintiff and five witnesses testified for the defendant. Eight of the accused confessed and gave confessional statements in court under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
