The Second Special Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression, Dhaka passed the sentence on September 2, 2003.

A High Court bench comprising Justice Ali Asgar Khan and Justice Emdadul Haque adjourned the hearing on the appeal as well as the death reference until Sunday next.

Fifteen-year-old Shazneen, a student of Scholastica School and the youngest daughter of Latifur Rahman, chairman of Transcom Group, was raped and killed at their Gulshan residence on the night of April 23, 1998.

On the first day of hearing, Deputy Attorney General ABM Waliur Rahman Khan began reading out the judgement of the lower court.

The tribunal ordered to hang till death the convicts Shahidul Islam alias Shahid, a domestic help, Syed Sajjad Mainuddin Hasan alias Azad, a contractor, Badal, the contractor's assistant, Shaniram Mandal, a carpenter, and maids Estema Khatun Minu and Parvin. The lower court pronounced the verdict over five years after the gruesome killing.

CHARGES AGAINST CONVICTS
At about 3:30pm on April 1, 1998, Hasan (the contractor employed for renovations to the residence of Latifur Rahman) had entered Shazneen's bedroom and asked her to show him the defective mirror in the bathroom she had earlier complained about. As she got into the bathroom, Hasan grabbed her with an ill motive. Shazneen pushed him aside and warned that she would tell her parents about it for punishment. Hasan became angry and left the room.

As Hasan came to know that Shazneen would report the April 1 incident to her parents, he plotted to take revenge by killing her and chose April 23, the day of a party hosted by Rahman.

Hasan lured some of the domestic helps with an offer of a hefty amount of money as reward for their roles in the plot to kill Shazneen.

After the incident, Shahid said that with the instigation and plan of Hasan, he raped Shazneen with the help of Humayun, Shaniram, Badal, Minu and Parvin.