“Collective responsibility”
The Dacca court has approved the persecution of Sohel Rana (35), the owner of the infamous Rana Plaza textile factory which collapsed in April 2013. Alongside 40 other people, like workshop owners and construction engineers, he will be put on trial for “murder” and “breaches of the civil building code”. Those breaches have ultimately led to the collapse and the death of 1,100 people and another 2,500 people injured.
Sohel Rana was arrested several days after that fateful 24 April 2013 at the Indian border, trying to flee Bangladesh. He has become the country’s enemy number 1 after reports of how he ruthlessly forced several hundred people into the dilapidated building on that day.
“This is the worst industrial catastrophe in Bangladesh’s history”, the chief investigator, Bijoy Krishna, told French press agency AFP. “Those 41 people carry the collective responsibility of the mass murder of 1,100 innocent people.”
The country is the world’s second largest retail clothes exporter, with regular accidents still occurring in clothes workshops. The first court hearing will take place at the end of June. If the defendants are found guilty, they face the death penalty.
