Bangladesh Islamic leader sentenced to 90 years in prison

A special Bangladeshi court on Monday sentenced an elderly top Islamist to 90 years in prison for masterminding atrocities during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan. Press reports said Ghulam Azam, compared by prosecutors to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, was found guilty of all five charges of planning, conspiracy, incitement, complicity, and murder and torture during the war, which the government says killed three million people. However, 90-year-old Azam, the wartime head of the country’s largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and now its spiritual leader, was spared the death penalty because of his age and health, and was instead sentenced to nine decades in prison, an official said. “He was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in all five charges. The tribunal observed that he deserved death penalty,” junior Attorney General M.K. Rahman said.