BANGLADESH: TWO KILLERS OF RU PROFESSOR MOHAMMAD YUNUS GET DEATH SENTENCE REDUCED TO LIFE TERM FOLLOWING RETRIAL

The death sentence handed down to two militants of banned outfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) for the murder of Rajshahi University professor Mohammad Yunus was reduced to life imprisonment. Rajshahi Speedy Trial Tribunal judge Golam Ahmed Khalilul announced the verdict on February 24 following a retrial. Their sentences have been reduced to life imprisonment from death penalty. They have also been fined Tk 5,000, inability to pay which will lead to another year in prison, State counsel Entajul Haque Babu said. Yunus, a professor of economics at Rajshahi University, was hacked to death with sharp weapons while he was on his morning walk in Binodpur on Dec 24, 2004. The two men, Safiullah and Shahidullah, were present in court on February 24. 
They were handed the death penalty by a speedy tribunal at Rajshahi in 2010 but the convicts appealed for a stay on the verdict, pleading for another trial.
Shahidullah aka Mahbub is son-in-law to Rafiqul Islam, elder brother to top JMB leader Siddikur Rahman better known as Bangla Bhai who was executed in 2007.     
He hails from Naogaon and Safiullah aka Tarek is from Satkhira.  
Professor Yunus was president of Bangabandhu Parishad at Rajshahi University.  
Police’s Criminal Investigation Department charged eight JMB militants in 2007. 
The professor’s murder was ordered by Shaykh Abdur Rahman, who headed the JMB, Safiullah said in a testimony after his arrest on Apt 13, 2006. 
Shahidullah was later arrested in Bogra.  
In 2009, the case was transferred to a speedy trial tribunal. The following year, Judge Md Monjurul Basid acquitted six and handed down maximum penalty for the two men.
Shaykh Abdur Rahman wanted the professor dead, said the earlier verdict. 
The case did not have an eyewitness but the testimonies provided by the two men proved their involvement.