Bangladesh opposition leader jailed over alleged death threats to Prime Minister

A Bangladeshi opposition leader was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly giving death threats to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at an event last year.

A Chittagong court awarded in absentia the prison sentence to Giasuddin Quader Chowdhury, the vice-chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

The court also slapped a fine of 5,000 Bangladeshi takas on the BNP leader with an additional three-month prison term for failure to pay the fine, Additional Public Prosecutor Sameer Das Gupta was quoted by bdnews24 as saying.

On May 29 last year, Chowdhury had allegedly said at a function that Hasina's fate would turn out to be "worse" than that of her father and country's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1975.

The next day, ruling Awami League general secretary of Fatikchhari unit, Nazimuddin Muhuri, had filed a case in the court against the BNP leader for his alleged comments, court sources told The Dhaka Tribune.

The court had issued an arrest warrant against Chowdhury on May 31 of that year.

Chowdhury is the younger brother of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, who was executed in 2015 in connection with his role in war crimes committed in 1971 during the Liberation War.