Bangladesh to hang 26 elite security team members hired by politician to kidnap and kill rivals

A Bangladesh court sentenced 26 people to death on Monday after hearing how a politician from the ruling Awami League hired members of the country’s elite security unit to assassinate political rivals.

After a trial that gripped Bangladesh, a judge found all 35 defendants in the case guilty of involvement in the abduction and murders of seven people in the central city of Narayanganj in April 2014.

Convictions of security force members are rare in Bangladesh. Rights activists say they frequently carry out unlawful killings and are effectively able to operate in a climate of impunity.

Judge Syed Enayet Hossain ordered 26 of them to hang after the year-long trial in Narayanganj while the other nine were handed prison sentences ranging from seven to 17 years.

Twenty-three of those convicted were present in the crowded court when the verdict was announced but the other 12 are still at large.

The bodies of the victims were found floating in a river, three days after witnesses reported seeing a group of people being bundled into the back of an unmarked van outside the city’s international cricket stadium.

Among those sentenced to death was Tarek Sayeed, a commander in the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) who is the son-in-law of a minister in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet.