Death sentence upheld for Bangladesh Islamist party chief

Bangladesh's Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence given to the leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party for atrocities and multiple killings committed during the nation's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

Bangladeshi activists who fought in the 1971 war celebrate after a review petition relating to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami's appeal against his death sentence, which was dismissed by the Supreme Court in Dhaka on January 6 2016.

Last year a special tribunal dealing with war crimes convicted the head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Motiur Rahman Nizami, on 16 charges, including genocide, murder, torture, rape and destruction of property.


On Wednesday, a panel of senior judges headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha rejected an appeal by Nizami against the previous verdict. The decision has removed the last legal barrier to executing him by hanging unless he gets presidential clemency, which is unlikely.

Bangladesh says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people, raped 200 000 women during the war.