Rana Plaza factory collapse trail resumes after five years

Following a number of appeals, the trial to determine who was to blame for the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh has resumed after five years.

On Monday (31 January), a Bangladeshi judge resumed the trial for the Rana Plaza industrial disaster, which occurred in Dhaka on 24 April 2013 and resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 garment workers and the injury of thousands more.

A court has ordered the trial for 36 of the original defendants to be restarted; however, three have since died, and a prosecution plea to remove the two suspended indictments will be reviewed separately.

The trial is being held five years after a court trial in 2016 that formally charged 38 persons with murder, including Rana Plaza owner Sohel Rana and his parents.

The 2016 trial was postponed due to numerous defendants attempting to have their charges dismissed and the country’s supreme court postponing the prosecution of two municipal authorities accused of approving the development.

At the start of the trial this week, Chief Public Prosecutor Sheikh Hemayet Hossain said that they want to finish the trial as soon as possible. Too much time has already been wasted. There was no (construction) plan for the building. When the machines were turned on, it would shake. And the building’s owner, Sohel Rana, employed hired muscle to push the laborers to work on the day of the collapse.

Hossain stated that all of the accused, with the exception of Rana, have been released on bond, and Rana’s father, who was a co-owner of the complex, is one of the defendants who died before facing trial, according to colleague prosecutor Shamsur Rahman.