Murder charges over factory collapse

A court in Bangladesh has indicted 41 suspects on murder charges over the deaths of more than 1,100 people in the collapse of a building which housed garment factories.

Investigators initially said those accused of wrongdoing in the April 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza building would be charged with culpable homicide, but they later changed the charges to murder due to the gravity of the disaster. About 2,500 people were injured.

Masud Rana, who owned the building outside Dhaka, and 33 other people pleaded not guilty when the charges against them were read out in court. Another seven who absconded will be tried in absentia, said prosecutor Mizanur Rahman.