Bangladesh trial may 'end soon'

By Mark Dummett
BBC News, Dhaka

Mr Rahman was the father of the current ruler, Sheikh Hasina

The trial of the army officers accused of killing Bangladesh's first president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975 is expected to end this week.

The trial began 10 years ago and the last stage has seen the final appeal of the alleged killers.

Five of the accused are in prison in the capital, Dhaka. Six others are on the run abroad.

Mr Rahman was gunned down in his home less than four years after leading Bangladesh to freedom from Pakistan.

The killers were a group of young army officers, who went on to murder not just the charismatic president, but also his wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law and about 20 other relatives and aides.

The government the majors helped install passed a law indemnifying their actions and until 1998 they were free men.

But by then Mr Rahman's daughter Sheikh Hasina, who was abroad at the time of the massacre, had herself become Bangladesh's prime minister, and the accused were put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to death.

Sheikh Hasina lost the following elections, and the next government, led by the party which ultimately benefitted from the coup, slowed the process down.

But Sheikh Hasina returned to power earlier this year, and has made the conclusion of the trial one of her top priorities.