Many leading international media outlets have run reports on the verdict in Feni madrasa student Nusrat Jahan Rafi murder case, in which all 16 charge-sheeted accused have been given death penalty.
The media institutions covering the news include UK-based BBC and Daily Mail, Qatar-based Al Jazeera, India’s NDTV, Canadian TBS News, France-based AFP, Australian ABC, Dubai-based Gulf News, and US-based Breaking News.
The Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal in Feni awarded death penalty to the accused, including principal Md Sirajuddoula, and fined them Tk 100,000 each.
BBC ran a report under caption ‘Nusrat Jahan Rafi: Death penalty for 16 who set student on fire’ stating that the murder shocked the country and led to a series of protests demanding justice for Nusrat.
It said the trial has been one of the quickest in Bangladesh where such cases usually take years to conclude.
The headline of NDTV is '16 sentenced to death in Bangladesh for burning 19-year-old woman alive’, Al Jazeera ‘Bangladesh sentences 16 to death over Nusrat Jahan Rafi murder’ and Fox News ‘16 sentenced to death in Nusrat Jahan Rafi's murder.
Nusrat, a student of Soniagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa, were murdered by accomplices of madrasa principal Md Sirajuddoula.
Sirajuddoula’s goons set her on fire on April 6 this year as she refused to withdraw a case filed against the principal for sexual harassment. She succumbed to her injuries at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on April 10.
Nusrat’s brother Mahmudul Hasan Noman on April 8 filed the case against eight people while Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) on June 29 pressed charge sheet against 16. The court examined 87 witnesses on different dates from June 27 to September 30.
Feni Women and Child Repression Prevention Tribunal on September 30 set October 24 to pronounce the verdict as both the state and defence concluded their arguments on that day.