Sixteen sentenced to death for murder of Bangladeshi teenager

Nusrat Jahan Rafi was set on fire in April after accusing her school principal of sexual harassment

Women hold up signs with a photograph of Nusrat Jahan Rafi at a protest in Dhaka on April 12, 2019, days after she was set on fire for reporting sexual harassment. AFP

A court in Bangladesh sentenced 16 people to death on Thursday over the murder of a female student, 19, who was burnt alive in April, provoking outrage across the country.

Nusrat Jahan Rafi was doused in kerosene and set on fire after refusing to withdraw a sexual harassment complaint against the head teacher of the seminary she attended in the south-eastern district of Feni.

"The verdict proves that nobody will get away with murder in Bangladesh. We have the rule of law," prosecutor Hafez Ahmed said after the verdict in a crowded courtroom.

Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the seminary where her attackers pressed her to withdraw the complaint she had filed with police.

When she refused, she was tied up, doused in kerosene and set on fire.

She suffered burns to 80 per cent of her body and died in hospital five days later on April 10.

Her death highlighted an alarming rise in sexual harassment cases in the South Asian country of 165 million people.

Protesters in the capital Dhaka staged days of demonstrations seeking "exemplary punishment" for the killers.

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had promised to prosecute all those involved.

Rafi had gone to police in late March to report the sexual harassment, and a leaked video shows the local police station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as "not a big deal".

At the time, police had said that one of the 18 people initially arrested had accused the school's principal of ordering the attack.

The teacher "told them to put pressure on Rafi to withdraw the case or kill her if she refused", said senior police superintendent Mohammad Iqbal, who led the investigation.

Mr Iqbal had also said that some of those arrested were Rafi's classmates and that they had tied her up with a scarf before setting her on fire.

"The plan was to pass the incident off as a suicide but it fell through after Rafi managed to come downstairs while on fire, because the scarf burnt and freed her hands and feet," he said.

Activists say the murder exposed a culture of impunity surrounding sex crimes against women and children, and the fact that those who report harassment often suffer a backlash.

Prosecutions are also rare in cases of rape and sexual assault.

After the murder, Bangladesh ordered about 27,000 schools to set up committees to prevent sexual violence.

Defence lawyers said they would appeal against Thursday's verdict in the high court.

The case was fast-tracked, with the hearing taking only 62 days.