Bangladesh Islamist jailed for 90 years

Wartime head of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party was jailed for 90 years for atrocities in 1971. Source: AAP

A BANGLADESHI court has sentenced an elderly Islamist leader to 90 years in prison for masterminding atrocities during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

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.

"But because of his old age and health complications, he was sentenced separately in the five charges. In all he has been sentenced to 90 years in prison."

Azam remained stoney-faced in his wheelchair as the sentence was read out.

Violence erupted in cities across Bangladesh ahead of the judgment, killing two people, as supporters of Azam clashed with police and paramilitary troops who responded with rubber bullets and in some cases live rounds, officials said.

Jamaat called a nationwide strike on Monday to protest the verdict, saying the war crimes trials are aimed at eliminating its leaders.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Azam, describing him as a "lighthouse" who guided all war criminals, and the "architect" of the militias which committed many of the 1971 atrocities.

When India intervened at the end of the nine-month war and it became clear Pakistan was losing, the militias killed dozens of professors, playwrights, filmmakers, doctors and journalists.

Azam was described as the "mastermind" of the massacres of the intellectuals. Many of their bodies were found a few days after the war at a marsh outside the capital, blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs.

Azam is the fifth person convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal. Three Islamists have been sentenced to death and one was given life imprisonment.

Previous verdicts by the tribunal have sparked widespread and deadly violence on the streets of a country that has a 90 per cent Muslim population.

Azam's lawyer Tajul Islam said the charges were based on newspaper reports of speeches Azam gave during the war, which led to the creation of Bangladesh.

"The prosecution has completely failed to prove any of the charges," he told AFP before the verdict.

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