DHAKA, Bangladesh: A Bangladeshi court has awarded the death sentence to the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader Motiur Rahman Nizami for his role in the deaths of thousands during Bangladesh’s independence war against Pakistan in 1971.
The 71-year-old Nizami was awarded the death sentence by a special tribunal in a packed courtroom in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Nizami, the former industries minister in the 2001-2006 Cabinet of then-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was tried on 16 charges including genocide, murder, torture, rape and destruction of property.
