Blogger Rajib Haider appeal verdict April 2

The High Court has fixed April 2 for pronouncing the appeal verdict in blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider Murder case. The bench of Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Md Jahangir Hossain set the date on Monday. On January 9, the bench completed hearing on the death reference case. The hearing on the appeal petitions and death reference of the convicts started on November 7, 2016 on priority basis. Rajib, known as Thaba Baba to the blogging community, was hacked to death on February 15, 2013 near his Pallabi residence, only 10 days into the historic movement at Shahbagh demanding death penalty for the 1971 war criminals and a ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and its student body Islami Chhatra Shibir. A day after the murder, the victim’s father Nazim Uddin filed a murder case with Pallabi police station. Al-Qaeda's Bangladesh wing Ansarullah Bangla Team (now Ansar al-Islam) claimed responsibility for the murder. On December 31, 2015, a special tribunal handed the death penalty to Md Faisal Bin Nayem alias Dweep and former Shibir leader Redwanul Azad Rana for masterminding the murder of blogger Rajib. They were also fined Tk10,000 each. In addition, the tribunal sentenced six others to varying terms of imprisonment for the murder, including a five-year sentence for Ansarullah chief Mufti Jashim Uddin Rahmani. On March 15, 2015, the DMP announced a bounty of Tk5 lakh for top Ansarullah leader Rana following the murder of Mukto-Mona blog founder Avijit Roy on February 26 the same year. Rana, who had instructed to attack blogger Asif Mohiuddin, also made the plan to attack two teachers of Monipur High School, police said. He was arrested on February 20 this year.