The High Court has released the full text of its verdict upholding the death sentences of 20 former students of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and life imprisonment for five others for the 2019 murder of Abrar Fahad.

The 131-page judgment was made public recently, weeks after the High Court bench of Justice AKM Asaduzzaman and Justice Syed Enayet Hossain delivered the ruling on March 16. 

The court accepted the trial court’s death references and rejected appeals filed by the convicts.

Abrar, a second-year student of electrical and electronics engineering, was beaten to death by leaders and activists of the now-banned BUET unit of Chhatra League, the student wing of the ruling Awami League, inside a dormitory on October 6, 2019.

According to the judgment, the accused acted in coordination to carry out the fatal assault. “None of them tried to stop the killing,” it stated.

The murder drew nationwide outrage and sparked student protests, prompting BUET to ban political activities on campus.

A Dhaka court had sentenced the 25 individuals on December 8, 2021, following a trial that detailed how Abrar was summoned to a dorm room, interrogated over a Facebook post, and brutally beaten with cricket stumps and skipping ropes. He died in the early hours of October 7, 2019.

The case was filed by his father with Chawkbazar Police the following day.

SMS/