By Sumi Khan
Dhaka, Sep 22 (IANS): A court in Bangladesh has upheld the death sentences of four Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) militants for the 2015 murder of a Japanese national in Rangpur district.
A bench comprising Justices Md Mostafizur Rahman and SM Masud Hossain Dolon passed the order on Wednesday after hearing the death reference and appeal petition.
The victim, Kunio Hoshi, had come to Bangladesh on December 23, 2011.
Before he was murdered, Hoshi had been cultivating special grass as fodder for cattle in Kachu Alutari village of Kaunia upazila, Rangpur.
On October 3, 2015, the 66-year-old was shot dead near his farm.
The four convicted militants are Masud Rana alias Mamun (21), Liton Mia alias Rafiq (23), Sakhawat Hossain (32), and Ahsan Ullah Ansari alias Biplab (24).
But the court overturned the sentence for another convict, 34-year-old Ishaq Ali, who was also condemned to death by the trial court.
Rangpur Special Court Judge Naresh Chandra Sarkar had sentenced the five accused to death in the case on February 28, 2017.
Just a week before Hoshi's murder, Italian national Caesar Tabela was killed in Dhaka's Gulshan area.