A Dhaka court has handed down the death penalty to eight militants, including sacked army major Syed Ziaul Haque, for the murder of publisher Faisal Arefin Dipan in 2015.
The other accused are Akram Hossain alias Hasib, Moinul Hassan Shamim alias Samir, Abdur Sabur Samad, Khairul Islam, Abu Siddik Sohel, Mozammel Hussain and Sheikh Abdullah. The convicts, two of whom are absconding, have also been fined Tk 50,000 each.
Judge Md Mujibur Rahman of the Anti-Terrorism Special Tribunal announced the verdict in the much-discussed case on Wednesday, reports bdnews24.com.
In a 53-page judgment, the judge noted that the accused were all members of the banned militant outfit Ansar Al Islam.
The exemplary punishment for the accused will deter others from committing similar crimes in the future, he said, while describing the convicts as 'enemies of the state' for killing a man for publishing a book.
Dipan, 43, was killed in his third-floor office at the Aziz Super Market in Dhaka on Oct 31, 2015.
It came months after Islamist militants murdered science writer and blogger Avijit Roy, the first death in the wave of violence against secular writers in Bangladesh.
Dipan’s Jagriti Prokashony published Avijit’s books. Another publisher of Avijit’s books, Rashid Chowdhury Tutul, survived an attack on his office in Lalmatia.
The police said Ziaul masterminded and ordered the killing of Dipan. Zaiul has been charged in several other cases over similar attacks.