[JURIST] A Bangladesh court on Wednesday indicted an Islamist leader and seven students for the 2013 death of atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider. The indictments will lead to the trial for Islamist group head Mutifi Jasimuddin Rahmani and the other accused students. The indictments were issued [AP report] following a police investigation, which claimed that Rhaman incited the students to murder Haider based on his blogs conflicting with Islamic beliefs. Haider’s blogs criticized the religion of Islam and spoke out against the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami party (JI) [party website]. At this point JI has denied any involvement in Haider’s killing.

Last year Bangladeshi investigators moved the government [JURIST report] to ban JI, the country’s largest Islamist party, after evidence emerged indicating that JI formed armed groups to assist Pakistani forces in the commission of atrocities Last month the International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh convicted and sentenced [JURIST report] JI leader Abdus Subhan to death. Subhan was charged and convicted of of mass killing, looting and arson during during the 1971 War of Liberation against Pakistan. Subhan is the ninth senior leader of his party to be convicted of war crimes since the tribunal opened in 2010.