Sixteen sentenced to death for burning Bangladeshi girl alive

A court in Bangladesh sentenced 16 people to death on Thursday for the murder of a teenage girl in April.

Nusrat Jahan Rafi, 19, was doused in paraffin oil and burnt alive after refusing to withdraw a sexual harassment complaint against the head teacher of the seminary she attended in the south-eastern district of Feni.

“The verdict proves that nobody will get away with murder in Bangladesh. We have the rule of law,” prosecutor Hafez Ahmed said.

Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the seminary, where her attackers tried to force her to withdraw the complaint she filed with police.

When she refused, she was tied up and set on fire. She suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body and died in hospital five days later, on April 10.

Her death caused outrage in Bangladesh and highlighted an alarming rise in sexual harassment cases in the country.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina promised to prosecute all those involved, while protesters called for the killers to receive “exemplary punishment” as days of demonstrations were held in the capital Dhaka.

Rafi went to police in March to report the sexual harassment – a leaked video showed the police station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as “not a big deal”.

Officers said one of the 18 people initially arrested accused the school’s head teacher of ordering the attack.

Police superintendent Mohammad Iqbal, who led the investigation, said the principal “told them to put pressure on Rafi to withdraw the case or kill her if she refused”.

Mr Iqbal said some of those arrested were Rafi’s classmates and said that they tied her up with a scarf before setting her on fire.

“The plan was to pass the incident off as a suicide. But it fell through after Rafi managed to come downstairs while on fire because the scarf burnt and freed her hands and feet,” Mr Iqbal said.

Defence lawyers said they would appeal the verdict.