Bangladesh court sentences 152 soldiers to death
Iran Press TV
Tue Nov 5, 2013 12:51PM GMT
A Bangladeshi special court has handed down death penalty to more than 150 soldiers after finding them guilty of killing 74 people during a 2009 mutiny.
At least 152 former paramilitary soldiers, out of more than 800 who were detained in Bangladesh, were sentenced to death on Tuesday over the killing of 74 people, including 57 top army officers, during a bloody mutiny at a military base in the capital, Dhaka, in 2009.
'The court announced the death sentence to them for the heinous killing of the country's brave sons,' Prosecutor Mosharraf Hossain Kajol said.
The court also handed down life imprisonment to 158 rebel soldiers, while sentencing 251 soldiers to 3-10 years behind bars and acquitting 242 others.
The trial began in August 2011, after more than 800 were arrested in 2010 over the massacre of 74 people during the military coup.
About 4,000 people have been already sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of involvement in the mutiny.
The trial was held under tight security with some 2,000 police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers guarding the court complex in the capital, Dhaka.
'It is possibly one of the biggest criminal trials in the world in terms of the number of accused,' Chief Prosecutor Anisul Huq had earlier admitted.
MM/PR/SS
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