7yrs for PM death threat

A Dhaka court on Thursday sentenced absconding BUET teacher Hafizur Rahman Rana to seven years in prison for threatening to kill Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a Facebook post.

Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge Mohammad Zahirul Haque pronounced the verdict.

Rana is with the Mechanical Engineering department at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET).

The court’s Additional Public Prosecutor Tapas Kumar Pal told bdnews24.com that the judge gave convict two years under penal code and two more under article 57 of ICT law.

A pro-government platform had filed a General Diary with Shahbagh Police on Apr 23 last year accusing the BUET teacher of conspiracy to murder the Prime Minister.

The complaint alleged that Rana's posting likened the Prime Minister to a ‘hyena’ who feasted on the country and was now eyeing the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

The posting said all efforts to protect her will come to nothing as "I will shoot her first in the head and then in the stomach before displaying her head in front of BUET as a warning to ward off other hyenas".

The court's Additional Public Prosecutor Shah Alam Talukdar said that Shahbagh Police Station's Inspector Biplob Kishore Shil filed a case based on the GD after investigation.

Charges were framed on Sep 25 last year.

The High Court had earlier summoned a Jahangirnagar University teacher for wishing death of the Prime Minister in his Facebook posting. The teacher, who was in Australia then, was sentenced to six months in jail for ignoring the court order.