Bangladesh mutiny death sentences
Those convicted were told by the judge that they had committed 'heinous atrocities'
A court in Bangladesh has sentenced at least 150 soldiers to death over a bloody border guard mutiny in 2009.
More than 150 others, mostly border guards, were given life. Verdicts are still being read out. Twenty-three civilians also face conspiracy charges.
The 823 soldiers being tried in the civilian court have already been jailed by military tribunals over the mutiny.
The 30-hour uprising over pay and other grievances broke out in Dhaka and left 74 people dead, 57 of them officers.
The mutiny began at the Bangladeshi Rifles Headquarters in the capital. Senior officers were killed and their bodies dumped in sewers and shallow graves.
The revolt spread to other army bases around the country before being put down. Nearly 6,000 soldiers have already been jailed by military courts.
Many soldiers who packed into the special civilian court in Dhaka on Tuesday were charged with murder, torture, conspiracy and other offences.
"The atrocities were so heinous that even the dead bodies were not given their rights," Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman said as he read out the verdicts.
But the judge said that the soldiers should have been given better pay and privileges to defuse resentment, adding they could not afford to send their children to military-owned schools.
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