B’desh opens murder trial over factory disaster

The 38 defendants are the first to go on trial for the disaster at the Rana Plaza compound, which highlighted appalling safety standards in Bangladesh’s USD 28 billion garment export industry, the world’s second largest after China.

“In all 41 people were charged. Among them 38, were indicted with murder and the other three for helping the main criminal, Sohel Rana, to escape,” prosecutor Abdul Mannan told AFP after the trial opened in a Dhaka court.

If convicted of murder the defendants, who include the owners of the building and of factories housed inside, face the death penalty.

At least 1,138 people died in the tragedy. Rescuers struggled for weeks to retrieve the bodies from the ruins but some people are still unaccounted for.