A Bangladeshi court has sentenced 16 people—including the principal of an Islamic school—to death on Thursday, for the killing of an 18-year-old girl who was set on fire after refusing to drop sexual harassment charges against the Islamic school Principal.
The judge of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal, Mamunur Rashid, found Principal Siraj Ud Doula, and 15 others guilty of either killing Nusrat Jahan Rafi or ordering her death in April.
Included among the 15 others sentenced were two ruling Awami League politicians, two teachers, and 11 students—two of whom were female, reported CBS News.
The brutality of death led to nationwide protests. Tens of thousands of people attended Rafi’s funeral prayers in her hometown, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina pledged swift justice for her family.
All the defendants appeared in court wearing handcuffs during the reading of the verdict.
The principal, who was seen smiling when he entered the court, began crying after the verdict was read. The defendants began shouting and screaming in the police van as they were taken away.
The defense lawyer, Giasuddin Nannu, said that all 16 defendants planned to appeal the verdict.
According to Fox News, Rafi was lured onto the rooftop of her school by four female students, where it was then requested that she withdraw the complaint she had filed against the Principal.
After refusing, she was allegedly tied up and gagged before being doused in kerosene and set on fire.
During the ambulance ride to the hospital, Rafi told her brother what had happened as he recorded her account of the incident on his mobile phone, “The teacher touched me. I will fight this until my last breath,” she said.
She died four days later with 80 percent of her body covered in burns.
The violence shook Bangladesh, triggering protests and raising concerns over the plight of women and girls in the conservative Muslim-majority nation of 160 million people.
Sexual harassment and violence allegedly often go unreported there, as victims are intimidated and the legal process is lengthy. Many are said to avoid reporting incidents to police because of social stigma.
According to human rights groups, police often show an unwillingness to investigate such cases and are accused of being influenced by local politics or bribes.
Days before Rafi was set on fire, she filed a complaint with police that the principal had called her into his office and repeatedly touched her inappropriately.
Her family agreed to help her to file the complaint, which prompted police to arrest the principal, infuriating both him and his supporters. This resulted in local politicians backing the school’s principal.
Police testified that the suspects said the attack on Rafi was planned and ordered by the principal while in prison when supporters came to visit him. They said the planned assault was to occur during the daytime so it would look like a suicide attempt.
AP Contributed to this report.
