Motorcade accompanying Hasina, then Awami League opposition chief, was attacked with rocks, batons and machetes, prosecutors mentioned.
A Bangladesh court docket has jailed 50 opposition activists for as much as 10 years for an assault on the present prime minister’s motorcade practically 20 years in the past, a prosecutor mentioned.
Among the many defendants was a former member of Parliament for the Bangladesh Nationalist Celebration (BNP), which was in energy on the time of the assault.
In 2002, a motorcade accompanying Sheikh Hasina, who was then the opposition chief for Awami League, was attacked with rocks, batons and machetes, prosecutors mentioned.
“Three males, together with the ex-MP, got 10 years in jail and the remaining obtained varied jail phrases from 4 and a half years,” prosecutor Shaheen Mirdha informed the AFP information company on Thursday, after the sentences have been delivered by a district court docket within the southern metropolis of Satkhira.
Twelve of the convicts are presently on the run.
This video seize reveals plainclothed safety personnel, proper, and a policeman, left on the automotive, along with his weapon securing the automotive carrying Hasina after her convoy was attacked [AFP]The prosecutor mentioned the assault was considered one of many assassination makes an attempt on Hasina, who was unharmed.
A number of of her Awami League followers and journalists have been injured.
The opposition BNP made no fast remark.
The BNP chief, Hasina’s archrival Khaleda Zia, is serving a 17-year jail time period for corruption imposed in 2018. Zia was prime minister on the time of the 2002 assault.
The BNP has accused the federal government of detaining tens of 1000’s of its activists utilizing trumped-up fees within the 12 years that Hasina has been in energy.
Tarique Rahman, Zia’s son who lives in London, was sentenced in 2018 to life imprisonment for his function in a grenade assault on a Hasina rally in 2004.
Nineteen folks have been sentenced to demise within the case.
