A court in southern Bagerhat city yesterday sentenced four pirates to death and six others to life imprisonment for killing a fisherman in 1998, a report reaching Dhaka said. The convicts were identified as Atahar Ali, Babul, Kamal and Bachchu while the person who received life sentence are Shahid Sheikh, Ishrat alias Esha, Korad Mollah, Faruk, Sanu Dakua and Abdul Hakim Sheikh. According to the prosecution, fisherman Ilias Hawladar, of Amratala village in Mongla, was shot and chopped to death by a group of forest robbers while fishing in the Sundarbans mangrove forest on November 19, 1998. The victim’s son had filed a case with Mongla police station on November 25, 1998. After examining the records and witnesses, sessions judge SM Solaiman handed down the verdict.