3 get death penalty for war crimes in Bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh

A court in Bangladesh handed down the death sentence to three people on Tuesday, including a former local leader of the country's largest Islamic political party, for crimes they were convicted of during the 1971 Liberation War.

A three-member International Crimes Tribunal convicted the three defendants over charges of murders, looting, kidnapping, and arson during the independence war.

The tribunal, set up in 2009, has been criticized by global rights groups for not following fair trial standards.

The convicts are the 68-year-old ex-chief of Jamaat-e-Islami's northern Naogaon district, Md Rezaul Karim Montu, as well as Nazrul Islam, 64, and Md Sahid Mondal, 62.

The legal inquiry was launched against the three in October 2016 and since then, the court heard 31 witnesses.

Nazrul Islam remains a fugitive since the court proceedings, while the other two defendants were put in prison.

Lawyer Gazi MH Tamim, representing the former leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, said they would file an appeal in the high court against the verdict.

Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan in 1971 after a bloody war that lasted months.