Zahid Hossain Khokon, a main opposition party official, was found guilty of 10 charges including forcibly converting minority Hindus to Islam during the nine-month war.
"He got the death sentence for six charges and 40 years' jail for four other charges," prosecutor Mukhlesur Rahman told reporters after the verdict was handed down.
Khokon, mayor of Nagarkanda town, disappeared after he was charged last year, and the court "ordered the national police chief and the district police chief to find and arrest him," he said. But Rahman said he believed the 70-year-old had fled to Sweden where he was hiding out with relatives.
Khokon is the second official from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to be handed the death penalty for war crimes.
The centre-right party has called the court's trials politically motivated, aimed at eliminating opposition leaders rather than rendering justice.
During the war, Khokon was an official of the party, whose members have also been tried and sentenced to death by the court.
Those convictions triggered the country's deadliest political violence since independence last year, when thousands of party activists clashed with police in protests that left some 500 people dead.
Prosecutors said Khokon led a militia in his home town that opposed Bangladesh's independence.
"He was directly involved in the killing of some 50 people. He forced Hindus to become Muslims and raped and tortured women," Rahman told AFP ahead of the verdict.
After Bangladesh gained independence, the Jamaat-e-Islami party was banned, so Khokon joined its now key ally the BNP.
One of BNP's top decision makers was also sentenced to hang last year for similar charges.
Defence lawyer Abdus Sukur Khan, who was appointed by the state for the trial, said Khokon did not receive justice.
Rights groups have said the trials fall short of international standards and lack any foreign oversight.
The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina maintains the hearings are needed to heal the wounds of the conflict, which it says left three million people dead.
Independent researchers estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 people died in the 1971 war.
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@Shamim: You have said "Hasina Wajed will earn respect when it also brings to trial those who comitted atrocities against the Urdu-Speaking settlers in East Pakistan" Sir, You are confusing the issue and spreading miss information by saying "They were butchered for no other reason than the fact that they spoke a different language" The language was not the issue. It was a war between those who wanted an independent Bangladesh and those who opposed. Are you aware that even today thousands of those who believed in "United Pakistan" and opted to remain Pakistanis are living a miserable life in camps in Bangladesh. In spite of repeated requests and efforts Pakistan has refused to take back those loyal Pakistanis. Please do some thing for them.
The Bangladesh Government led by Mrs. Hasina Wajed will earn respect when it also brings to trial those who comitted atrocities against the Urdu-Speaking settlers in East Pakistan many in March/ April 1971 and again in 1972. They were butchered for no other reason than the fact that they spoke a different language and believed in a united Pakistan. Many of the perpetrators are Members of Parliament today or occupy high positions in the BD Governmemt.
"Defence lawyer Abdus Sukur Khan, who was appointed by the state for the trial, said Khokon did not receive justice. Rights groups have said the trials fall short of international standards and lack any foreign oversight." I wonder how when the article clearly says "Independent researchers estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 people died in the 1971 war." Every one should be proud the way Bangladesh has stood and the justice has been finally dispensed against so much of odds and difficulties created by sectarian forces.