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Bangladeshi court sentences 4 to death over crimes in independence war

Xinhua, May 3, 2016 Adjust font size:

The International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced four men to death Tuesday morning and one to life in prison for their crimes committed during the country's war of independence in 1971.

The International Crimes Tribunal, led by its Chairman Justice Anwarul Haque, said the four were involved in the death of nine people.

Only one of the suspects was in court for the verdict.

After returning to power in January 2009, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Bangladesh's independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, established the first tribunal in March 2010, almost 40 years after the 1971 war.

Three leaders of opposition Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party Abdul Quader Molla, Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid have already been executed for war crimes.

Apart from them, Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party(BNP) leader Salaudin Quader Chowdhury were executed on Nov. 22 last year.

Both BNP and Jamaat have dismissed the court as a government "show trial," saying it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh was called East Pakistan until 1971. The government of Hasina said about 3 million people were killed in the war. Endit