| A tribunal in Dhaka yesterday sentenced five people to life for attempt to traffic a child to Dubai on February 9, 2002. Judge Shamsul Arefin of the Special Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression-5 gave the verdict for trafficking the six-year-old baby Sohel alias Kamran. The convicts are Mohammad Yunus Miah, Abul Kalam, Matiur Rahman alias Motaleb, Mostafa Kamal and Mahima Begum. Of the convicts, Mohammad Yunus Miah and Abul Kamal were present in the court while Motaleb, Mostafa and Mahima were tried in absentia. The sentence on the fugitives will come into effect on the date of their arrest or surrender, the judgment said. Earlier, the prosecution and the defence wrapped up their arguments and the court recorded statements of 18 prosecution witnesses. In the case filed with Mirpur Police Station, it was alleged that Mohammad Yunus Miah kidnapped the child from the trade fair venue at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar on February 9, 2002. He later sold the boy for Tk 3,000 to Abul Kamal and other accused, who confined the boy in a rented house of East Monipur in the city's Mirpur area. They were waiting to traffic him to Dubai to be employed as a camel jockey. But acting on a tip off, Masud Parvez, a Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association official, with the help of Mirpur police rescued Sohel from the house the next day. |