Bangladesh Islamist leader sentenced to death for 1971 war crimes

A Bangladesh war crimes court on Wednesday handed a death sentence to the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami - the country’s largest Islamist party - in a long-awaited verdict. The war crimes court found Motiur Rahman Nizami, 71, guilty of murder, rape and looting during Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971 when he was head of a ruthless militia. The court said Nizami misinterpreted the Quran to encourage his followers to conduct a massive genocide. Nizami is already on death row after being sentenced to hang in January for trafficking weapons and trying to ship them to a rebel group in northeast India.

It’s an historic verdict.

Prosecutor Haider Ali

Security was tightened across Bangladesh ahead of the long-awaited verdict, amid fears that it would spark a new round of bloodshed. A similar judgement against several of his senior lieutenants in the Jamaat-e-Islami party plunged Bangladesh into one of its worst crises 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. While it was effectively banned from taking part in this year’s legislative elections, Jamaat has millions of activists who have staged shows of strength on the streets of Dhaka and other cities in the aftermath of the previous verdicts.

World Nizami