War crimes: Bangladesh top Jamaat-e-Islami leader jailed for 90 years

Ghulam Azam was found guilty of all five charges by the controversial International Crimes Tribunal.

DHAKA: A special Bangladesh court on Monday sentenced a top leader to 90 years in prison for masterminding atrocities during the 1971 war.

Ghulam Azam, 90, the wartime head of the Jamaat-e-Islami and now its spiritual leader, was found guilty of all five charges by the controversial International Crimes Tribunal.

"He has been sentenced to 90 years in prison or until his death for the charges," prosecutor Sultan Mahmud told AFP.

The sentence came amid violent clashes in cities across Bangladesh between his supporters and police.

Clashes

Bangladesh police fired rubber bullets at protesters Monday, as violence erupted across the country ahead of the verdict on a top leader for allegedly masterminding atrocities during the 1971 war.

Activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami party threw homemade bombs at police, after taking to the streets in cities in support of the leader, who could face the death penalty if convicted, officials said.

Journalists were among up to a dozen people injured, after they were caught in the clashes in Dhalpur district of the capital Dhaka, local police chief Rafiqul Islam said.

"One of the journalists was hit by (shrapnel)," he told AFP, adding the protesters hurled at least five small home-made bombs at police.

Police also fired rubber bullets at protesters in the cities of Bogra, Comilla and Rajshahi after activists went on the rampage, attacking and torching dozens of vehicles, police officials told AFP.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Azam, comparing him to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. They describe him as a "lighthouse" who guided all war criminals and the "architect" of the militias which committed many of the 1971 atrocities.

When India intervened at the end of the nine-month war, the militias killed dozens of professors, playwrights, filmmakers, doctors and journalists.

Azam was described as the "mastermind" of the massacres of the intellectuals. Many of their bodies were found a few days after the war at a marsh outside the capital, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs.

Security was tight at the International Crimes Tribunal - set up by the country's secular government in 2010 - ahead of the verdict.

Previous verdicts by the tribunal have sparked widespread and deadly violence on the streets.

The verdict against Azam will be the fifth to be delivered by the tribunal. Three leaders have been sentenced to death and one given life imprisonment.

Jamaat, the country's largest Islamic party and a key member of the opposition, called a nationwide strike on Monday to protest the verdict, saying the war crimes trials are aimed at eliminating its leaders.

Azam's lawyer Tajul Islam said the charges were based on newspaper reports of speeches Azam gave during the war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

"The prosecution has completely failed to prove any of the charges," he told AFP.

Violence broke out in several cities on Sunday immediately after the tribunal announced its decision to pass the judgement on Monday.

The opposition has criticised the cases as politically motivated and aimed at settling old scores rather than meting out justice.

Unlike other war crimes courts, the Bangladesh tribunal is not endorsed by the United Nations. The New York-based Human Rights Watch group has said its procedures fall short of international standards.

The government maintains the trials are needed to heal the wounds of the 1971 war in which it says three million died. Independent estimates put the death toll at between 300,000 and 500,000.