By Dustin Brown
Two Bronx men were given relatively lenient sentences Monday for their role in a gang assault in Astoria two years ago after the judge declined their attorneys' motion to overturn their jury conviction, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman sentenced Sakib Chowdhury, 21, to five years in prison following his conviction in February on gang assault charges, the DA said.
Co-defendant Basudeb Chakrabarty, 20, was sentenced as a youthful offender because he was under 19 at the time of the crime. Cooperman ordered him to serve five years probation on the gang assault charge.
Chowdhury received the minimum possible sentence, a spokeswoman for the DA said. Chakrabarty, while not getting any jail time, was also eligible for an even more lenient sentence – an unconditional discharge.
Michael Horn and Ron Nir, the attorneys representing both men, had filed motions with the judge asking that their clients' convictions be overturned because they contended the jury misunderstood the law. Both lawyers maintained Chowdhury and Chakrabarty played no role in the assault but were convicted simply because they left the scene with the perpetrators.
But Cooperman declined to grant their request.
Four other men had already been sentenced in the attack and a seventh defendant, Balal Ahmr, was scheduled for sentencing April 22.
The attack, carried out by a group of Bangladeshis on two men also of Bangladeshi heritage, occurred two years ago on their country's independence day – Feb. 21, 2001 – outside the Kasturi Country Club on 36th Street in Astoria, Brown said.
The defendants instigated a fight with a 22-year-old man outside the club, then assaulted the victim's 24-year-old friend when he tried to intervene, Brown said.
