A Sylhet court has sentenced four people to death for the murder of science writer and blogger Ananta Bijoy Das. It also acquitted controversial blogger Shafiur Rahman Farabi in the case.

Sylhet Counterterrorism Tribunal Judge Nurul Amin Biplob announced the verdict in the case around 12:45 am on Wednesday. Secular blogger Das, who was also an organiser of Sylhet Ganajagaran Mancha, was hacked to death in front of his house at Sylhet’s Subidbazar on May 12, 2015.

His elder brother Ratneshwar Das filed a murder case with Sylhet Airport police a day later. The four capital punishment recipients are Abul Hossain, 25, Faysal Ahmed, 27, Mamunur Rashid, 25, and Abul Khayer Rashid Ahmed, 24.

Shafiur Rahman Farabi and Abul Khayer Rashid Ahmed were present in court to hear the verdict while the remaining three convicts are at large, said Mamunur Rahman Titu, the special public prosecutor at the tribunal.

The judge had set Wednesday for the verdict after the prosecution and defence completed their arguments on Mar 14. Das was hacked to death in front of his house at Sylhet’s Subidbazar on May 12, 2015.

A banker by trade, Das also wrote on science topics and edited a science magazine named ‘Jukti’. He was also an organiser of the local Ganajagaran Mancha. His elder brother Ratneshwar Das filed a murder case with the Sylhet Airport police a day after his death.

The case alleged that Das was killed in a pre-planned attack by religious extremists for writing about science. Police were initially in charge of investigating the murder, but the case was later transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department, or CID. On May 9, 2017, charges were filed against six people over the murder.

The sixth suspect in the case, 24-year-old Mannan Yahya alias Mannan Rahi aka AB Mannan Yahya aka Ibn Moin, submitted a confessional statement to the court under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and was put in jail. He suddenly fell ill and died in custody on Nov 2, 2017.