[VOA News] A special tribunal in Bangladesh has handed down the death sentence to a big shot of the country's largest Islamist party for war crimes more than 40 years ago.The war crimes court in Dhaka found Mir Quasem Ali guilty Sunday for crimes committed during the nation's independence war against Pakistain in 1971, when he was commander of the Al Badr militia forces.
The 62-year-old media tycoon is thought to be one of the top financiers of the Jamaat-e-Islami
...
The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka
The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an
independentbranch there since 1975. It maintains close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores...
party.
He was found guilty on eight charges, including the abduction of a young man and his killing in a torture cell.
Ali's defense lawyer, Tanvir Ahmed Al-Amin, described the charges as "baseless and false" and vowed to appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
Bangladesh says local collaborators and Pak soldiers killed 3 million people, raped 200,000 women and displaced about 10 million to refugee camps in neighboring India during the country's independence struggle. Jamaat-e-Islami opposed independence.