Bangladesh begins trial for murder of Italian aid worker
NAN-F-11
Trial
Dhaka, Oct. 25, 2016 (dpa/NAN) The trial of seven people including an opposition politician for 2015 killing of an Italian aid worker started in Bangladesh on Tuesday, court officials said.
Public Prosecutor, Tapas Kumar-Pal, said that Kamrul Mollah, a Magistrate in the Dhaka court, gave the go-ahead for the trial and fixed Nov. 24 for the first hearing in the case.
Investigators in June pressed charges against M.A. Quayum, a joint secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and six others, nine months after Cesare Tavella, 50, was shot dead in Dhaka.
Unidentified assailants on Sept. 28 came on a motorbike to the diplomatic district of Gulshan and shot dead Tavella, who was employed by Dutch-based non-governmental organisation ICCO in Bangladesh.
The prosecution lawyer said four of the six accused had confessed to their involvement in the killing.
Quayum remained on the run, a police officer said.
Islamic State terrorists had claimed responsibility for shooting the Italian man.
However, the Bangladeshi Government trashed the claims, saying “it was perpetrated by local hooligans hired by an opposition party”.
The BNP has condemned the indictment of its leader, Quayum.
It claimed that it was politically motivated.
Nine other Italians were among 20 civilians killed in a terrorist attack, claimed by Islamic State militants, in a cafe in the capital Dhaka on July 1. (dpa/NAN)
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Edited by Damilola Oyewole and Abdullahi Yusuf