A Dhaka tribunal has sentenced three men to life imprisonment for the gang rape of a young woman in the capital's Nawabganj area 24 years ago.

The verdict was delivered today (21 July) by Judge Munshi Md Moshiar Rahman of the Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunal-4.

In addition to life imprisonment, the court fined each convict Tk100,000. Failure to pay the fine will result in an additional one year of simple imprisonment.

The convicts are Sujan, Julhas and Mahammad.

The tribunal also directed the district magistrate or collector to recover the fines by selling the convicts' movable and immovable assets and hand the proceeds to the victim or her family.

State prosecutor Md Ershad Alam (George) confirmed the verdict.

Sujan and Mahammad were present in court when the judgment was delivered. The tribunal sent them to jail after issuing warrants of conviction. Julhas remains absconding, and the court issued both a conviction warrant and an arrest warrant against him.

According to the prosecution, the incident occurred at around 8pm on 22 March 2002. The victim had taken her eight-year-old paternal cousin behind their house to use a makeshift toilet enclosed with jute-stick fencing. After leaving the child there, she reached the north-west corner of the house, where Sujan allegedly grabbed her from behind, covered her mouth and dragged her to the northern side of the house, where Julhas and Mahammad had been waiting.

The three men allegedly threatened the victim before taking her to a boro paddy field owned by Bormij Uddin in Garbakanda under Sonapur, where they raped her in turns against her will. Before leaving, they warned her not to disclose the incident.

The victim later filed a gang rape case with Nawabganj Police Station.

After completing the investigation, Sub-Inspector SM Miraj Al Mahmud of Nawabganj Police Station submitted the charge sheet against the three accused on 18 July 2002.

The tribunal later framed charges and ordered the trial to begin. During the proceedings, it recorded testimony from all seven prosecution witnesses before delivering the verdict.