DHAKA, Aug 24 — A Bangladesh appeals court upheld today the death sentence for an ex-headteacher who burned alive a teen student who accused him of sexual harassment, in a case that shocked the country.
The court also maintained the death penalty for a co-conspirator in the murder of Nusrat Jahan Rafi, while 10 other defendants were acquitted.
The teen, who was doused in kerosene and set on fire after she made the harassment complaint against the head of her rural Islamic school, horrified Bangladesh.
Nusrat suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body and died in hospital four days later.
The former headteacher, SM Siraj-Ud-Dowlah, is among the two sentenced to hang. Four other defendants had their death penalties reduced to life terms by the appeals court.
Her death triggered outrage across the nation, with protesters in the capital Dhaka staging days of demonstrations seeking “exemplary punishment” for the killers.
In 2019, a court sentenced 16 to death. But the high court today acquitted 10, and reduced four death sentences to life imprisonment, rebuking the court for handing out “wholesale death sentences”.
“The four tied Nusrat’s hands and legs, and doused her with kerosene to ensure her death,” Attorney General Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal told the court.
Nusrat’s older brother, Mahmudul Hasan, said the family were “receiving messages threatening retaliation”, and begged the government “to ensure our security”. — AFP
Date: 24 August, 2026 8:15 pm
Source: Malay Mail
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