BANGLADESH: ISLAMIST LEADER SENTENCED TO DEATH

A Bangladesh court sentenced a senior leader of the country's largest Islamic party to death for war crimes committed during the 1971 liberation war.
Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid, 65, was found guilty of five charges, including abduction and murder, and was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal.
"In three out of five charges he was given the death sentence," the country's junior attorney general and prosecutor M K Rahman said.
The verdict is the second this week by the tribunal after Jamaat-e-Islami's 90-year-old spiritual leader Ghulam Azam was convicted on Monday (July 15) and sentenced to 90 years in prison for masterminding atrocities during the war.
That verdict prompted the nationwide strike by Jamaat supporters who took to the streets in violent protests with police that killed five people.
Mujahid, 65, was an influential minister in the 2001-2006 government headed by current opposition leader Khaleda Zia.
Mujahid, currently the secretary-general of Jamaat, was charged with murder, mass killing, torture, arson and abduction during the war of liberation against Pakistan.