A Bangladesh war crimes court earlier today handed the death sentence to the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami in a long-awaited verdict.
A judge found Motiur Rahman Nizami, 71, guilty of murder, rape and looting during Bangladesh’s 1971 war and sentenced him “to hang by the neck until his death”.
Security was tightened across Bangladesh ahead of the long-awaited verdict, amid fears that it will spark a new round of bloodshed.
Similar judgement against several of his senior lieutenants in the Jamaat-e-Islami party plunged Bangladesh into one of its worst crisis last year as tens of thousands of supporters fought with police.
More than 500 people died in the unrest and subsequent political violence ahead of disputed polls in January.
Extra police and border guards have been deployed in the capital and in other major cities, security officials said.
Nizami arrived at the court in Dhaka early morning today flanked by heavy security.
The verdict, originally scheduled for June, was postponed at the 11th hour because Nizami was suffering from high blood pressure
As the leader of now defunct Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), prosecutors say that Nizami turned the then student wing of Jamaat into a militia which killed professors, writers, doctors and journalists.
The aim was to make the fledgling nation an “intellectual cripple”, prosecutor Mohammad Ali said.
“When the war was nearing an end, as the chief commander of al Badr he ordered a ‘hit list’ based on which top intellectuals were abducted and killed,” he said.
Prosecutors say Nizami, as leader of al Badr, either personally carried out or ordered the deaths of nearly 600 Bangladeshis.
