A war crimes court sentenced a top Bangladeshi Islamist to death on Thursday for masterminding the slaughter of at least 120 farmers in one of the bloodiest single episodes of the 1971 independence war.
In a ruling likely to further fuel tensions between the secular government and religious hardliners, a special tribunal found Mohammad Kamaruzzaman guilty of genocide, torture, abduction and crimes against humanity.
“He is be hanged by the neck till death,” presiding judge Obaidul Hassan told a packed courtroom in the capital Dhaka.
The 61-year-old Kamaruzzaman, who is the assistant secretary general of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party, was the fourth person to be convicted by the much-criticised International Crimes Tribunal and the third senior politician.
As the verdict was announced, he could be heard condemning it as the “wrong judgement” from his seat in the dock.