BANGLADESH: 152 SOLDIERS HANDED DEATH PENALTY FOR CRIMES IN MUTINY

A Bangladeshi court handed down death penalty to 152 former paramilitary soldiers after convicting them guilty of killing 74 people, including 57 army officers, during a mutiny in 2009.
"They will be hanged by the neck until they are dead," ruled Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court, in what is being dubbed as the world's biggest ever criminal trial.
"The atrocities were so heinous that even the dead bodies were not given their rights," Judge Akhtaruzzaman told the packed court in the capital Dhaka.
Out of 846 accused 26 of them being civilians, the court handed down life imprisonments to 158 rebel soldiers and three to 10 years of imprisonment to 251 others and acquitted 242 finding their no involvement in the carnage.
Security was tight at the court, with over 1,000 policemen and members of elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion guarding the makeshift court complex at old Dhaka.
Dhaka's then sessions Judge Johurul Haque initiated the trial proceedings on January 5, 2011.