DHAKA, Bangladesh – A Bangladesh tribunal has convicted a top Islamic party politician of atrocities stemming from the nation's 1971 independence war and sentenced him to death.
The verdict against Muhammad Kamaruzzaman is the fourth verdict in Bangladesh's war crimes trial since January.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam says Kamaruzzaman was convicted Thursday on five counts of mass killings, rapes, torture and kidnapping.
The 61-year-old Kamaruzzaman is the assistant secretary-general of Jamaat-e-Islami, a hardline Islamic party that opposed Bangladesh's war of independence against Pakistan.
Opposition parties have said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is using the tribunals to decimate the country's opposition parties ahead of elections scheduled for next year.