A Dhaka court has sentenced three people to death and two others to life imprisonment for abducting and murdering eight-year-old Mahfuz in Gopalganj’s Kashiani upazila fifteen years ago. The verdict was delivered on Tuesday afternoon by Judge Farzana Yasmin of Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-4. Those sentenced to death are Jamal Sheikh, Shamim Sheikh, and Ranjhu Sheikh, while Mahmuda Khanam Usha and Billal Sheikh received life sentences. Each convict was also fined 50,000 taka, confirmed state prosecutor Gias Uddin.

According to the case details, on July 5, 2012, Mahfuz was abducted while walking to a local mosque in Borashur village. The kidnappers demanded ransom, and when it was not paid, they strangled him to death at Mahmuda Khanam Usha’s house on August 20, 2012, and dumped his body in a nearby mahogany grove. Mahfuz’s father was an expatriate in Italy, and the family reportedly had prior enmity with the accused.

Following the incident, Mahfuz’s mother filed a case on July 6, 2012. The case was later transferred to Dhaka’s Speedy Trial Tribunal-4 in December 2013, and the trial began in February 2014, with 23 prosecution witnesses testifying.