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Bangladesh Islamist party chief sentenced to death

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami sits inside a police van after he was sentenced to death for his role in the deaths of thousands of people during the nation's independence war against Pakistan in 1971, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. Nizami, a former Cabinet minister, was tried on 16 charges, including genocide, murder, torture, rape and destruction of property. Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people, raped 200,000 women and forced about 10 million people to take shelter in refugee camps across the border in neighboring India during the nine-month war. (AP Photo/Tanvir Ahammed)
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami sits inside a police van after he was sentenced to death for his role in the deaths of thousands of people during the nation's independence war against Pakistan in 1971, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014. Nizami, a former Cabinet minister, was tried on 16 charges, including genocide, murder, torture, rape and destruction of property. Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people, raped 200,000 women and forced about 10 million people to take shelter in refugee camps across the border in neighboring India during the nine-month war. (AP Photo/Tanvir Ahammed)

By Associated Press 2 min read

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) – A special tribunal sentenced the leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party to death on Wednesday for atrocities and multiple killings during the nation’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

Motiur Rahman Nizami, 71, sat calmly in the dock as the head of a three-judge panel, M. Enayetur Rahim, read the verdict in the packed courtroom in Dhaka, the capital. The defense said it would appeal.

Outside, police and paramilitary units patrolled the streets because previous verdicts by the tribunal have sparked violence.

Nizami’s Jamaat-e-Islami party denounced the verdict in a statement and called a general strike for Thursday, Sunday and Monday. Friday and Saturday make up the weekend in Bangladesh.

Nizami, a former Cabinet minister, was tried on 16 charges, including genocide, murder, torture, rape and destruction of property. He was accused of personally carrying out or ordering the deaths of nearly 600 Bangladeshis.