A Dhaka court on Wednesday sentenced four people to death for killing former Dhaka University teacher and writer Prof Humayun Azad in 2004.
Dhaka’s fourth additional metropolitan sessions judge AL Mamun handed down the punishment and also imposed a fine of Tk 50,000 on each of the convicts.
The convicts are Mizanur Rahman alias Minhaz alias Shafiq, Anwar Alam alias Bhagne Shahid, Salehin alias Salahuddin and Nur Mohammad alias Sabu. While Minhaz and Anwar were present in the court, the two others were tried in absentia.
Earlier, the court had fixed the judgment date after prosecution and defence lawyers concluded their arguments on March 27.
On February 27 in 2004, Humayun sustained serious injuries when some assailants hacked him indiscriminately at Amar Ekushey Book Fair on Bangla Academy premises.
The following day, Humayun's brother Manjur Kabir lodged a complaint of attempted murder with the Ramna police.
After the attack, he underwent treatment at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka for 22 days and then at a hospital in Bangkok for 48 days. He was shifted to Germany the same year, where he died on August 12.
Following his death, police had registered a murder case.
On November 14, 2007, Kazi Abdul Malek, inspector of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted a chargesheet against five militants, including the chief of banned militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Shaykh Abdur Rahman.
However, on March 30 of the same year, Shaykh Abdur Rahman and Ataur Rahman were hanged in another murder case of two judges in Jhalakahti.
After re-investigation, CID inspector Lutfar Rahman, the main investigating officer in the case, pressed charges against the five accused on April 30 in 2012.
Of them, Hafiz Mahmud died during the trial proceedings.
Meanwhile, two accused Salahuddin alias Salehin and Rakibul Hasan alias Hafiz Mahmud were freed from a prison van on February 23 in 2014.
However, Rakib was caught that night and later died in a "gunfight" with the police.
