Bangladesh Islamist leader Motiur Rahman Nizami sentenced to death

The head of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party has been sentenced to death on Wednesday Oct 29,2014 for war crimes committed during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

 Motiur Rahman Nizami(71) faced 16 charges including genocide, murder, torture and rape.

The war crimes court found Motiur Rahman Nizami, 71, guilty of murder, rape and looting during Bangladesh's war of independence against Pakistan in 1971 when he was head of a ruthless militia.

The court sentenced Nizami, head of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, to "hang by the neck until his death" for orchestrating the killing of top professors, writers and doctors during the conflict.

A state prosecutor said the sentence reflected the "gravity of the crimes".