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BBC News - Bangladesh executes Mujib killers
Bangladesh has begun executing the ex-army officers convicted of killing the country's independence leader in 1975.
Five men killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the president's wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law and approximately 20 others as part of a military coup.
Only hours earlier the Bangladeshi law minister had announced that they would be executed by Sunday but could be "hanged at any moment".
Two were executed on Wednesday. All five had not denied their crimes.
"Two of the killers are already dead and three others will be put to gallows in a while," a prison official told reporters, according to Reuters news agency.
The five men, who had been in prison in the capital, Dhaka, did not deny their role in the death of Mr Rahman, but had said they should be tried in a military rather than a civilian court.
The Supreme Court had dismissed their appeals to commute the sentence, paving the way for a date to be set for execution, AFP reported earlier.
Mr Rahman was killed in 1975, just four years after leading Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan.
Six fellow plotters, on the run abroad, have also been sentenced to death. A seventh man also found guilty in absentia is thought to have died abroad.
The government the majors helped install passed a law indemnifying their actions and until 1998 they were free men.
But by then Sheikh Hasina, Mr Rahman's daughter, had herself become prime minister and the accused were put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to death.
She lost the following elections, and the next government, led by the party which ultimately benefited from the coup, slowed the process down.
But Sheikh Hasina returned to power earlier this year, and made the conclusion of the trial one of her top priorities.
Bangladesh has begun executing the ex-army officers convicted of killing the country's independence leader in 1975.
Five men killed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the president's wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law and approximately 20 others as part of a military coup.
Only hours earlier the Bangladeshi law minister had announced that they would be executed by Sunday but could be "hanged at any moment".
Two were executed on Wednesday. All five had not denied their crimes.
"Two of the killers are already dead and three others will be put to gallows in a while," a prison official told reporters, according to Reuters news agency.
The five men, who had been in prison in the capital, Dhaka, did not deny their role in the death of Mr Rahman, but had said they should be tried in a military rather than a civilian court.
The Supreme Court had dismissed their appeals to commute the sentence, paving the way for a date to be set for execution, AFP reported earlier.
Mr Rahman was killed in 1975, just four years after leading Bangladesh to independence from Pakistan.
Six fellow plotters, on the run abroad, have also been sentenced to death. A seventh man also found guilty in absentia is thought to have died abroad.
The government the majors helped install passed a law indemnifying their actions and until 1998 they were free men.
But by then Sheikh Hasina, Mr Rahman's daughter, had herself become prime minister and the accused were put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to death.
She lost the following elections, and the next government, led by the party which ultimately benefited from the coup, slowed the process down.
But Sheikh Hasina returned to power earlier this year, and made the conclusion of the trial one of her top priorities.