Killers of Bangladeshi blogger sentenced to death

Two students have been  sentenced to death in Bangladesh after being found guilty of the murder of a secular blogger in 2013.

Blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider, also an organiser of a campaign in favour of the death penalty for Bangladeshi war criminals, was hacked to death on February 15, 2013 near his home.

A total of eight people had been indicted for the murder, the six remaining defendants being given jail terms for their involvement, the majority of them students of Electronics and Electrical and Communications department students of North South University. 

Only one of Haider's killers was present in the Daka courtroom, the other one being tried in absentia

Haider had led a popular movement against Islamist leaders accused of atrocities in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence.

In his reaction to the death sentences, defence lawyer Faruk Ahmed said his clients would be filing an appeal to the Supreme Court.