"No physically or mentally unfit person should be made to face the gallows," Justice Obaidul Hassan declared, noting that the 83-year-old convict could not walk on his own.
"So he is sentenced to prison until his natural death," the judge said before a packed courtroom.
Hassan added that prosecutors had been able to prove Abdul Alim's involvement in "crimes against humanity" in northern Bangladesh during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan – including genocide, arson and looting – "beyond a shadow of doubt."
"We are happy with this judgment," state prosecutor Rana Dasgupta told Anadolu Agency. "We accept it."
The trial, which began in July 2012, has seen a total of 35 people take the witness stand.
Today's court ruling is the eighth verdict handed down against Bangladeshis who collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 war.
The court has already convicted four current and two former leaders of the country's main Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, along with one leader of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
On October 1, the court sentenced Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, a 65-year-old BNP lawmaker and former minister, to death by hanging for rape, torture, murder and genocide.
Bangladesh says more than three million people died in its 1971 war for independence, although independent researchers put the death toll at about 500,000.
- Appealed
Ahsanul Haque, Alim's defense lawyer, vowed to appeal the ruling.
Sajjad, the convicted former minister's son, for his part, blasted the verdict against his father.
"We are displeased by the verdict," he told AA. "My father is innocent; he was not involved in any kind of arson, looting or killing during the liberation war in 1971."
Alim was born in 1930. His family migrated to Bangladesh from West Bengal, a province of India, in the early 1950s.
In 1958, he joined the Muslim League and later joined the BNP.
Alim served as minister – first of textiles then of communications – in the BNP government between 1978 and 1982.
By Ferdous Ahmad Bhuiyan – Anadolu Agency
englishnews@aa.com.tr
