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BANGLADESH: ISLAMIST MIR QUASEM ALI HANGED FOR 1971 WAR CRIMES
September 3, 2016: A leader and financial backer of the biggest Islamist party in Bangladesh was executed for war crimes committed during the war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Media tycoon Mir Quasem Ali, 63, of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was sentenced to death two years ago.
He had been convicted of offences including murder and torture.
The tycoon was hanged at a high-security prison outside Dhaka in the evening.
He was arrested in 2010 and convicted in 2014. He declined to seek a presidential pardon, which would have required an admission of guilt.
A huge security operation was staged before and after his execution. Previous executions have led to huge crowds demonstrating both in support and against them.
At his trial, Ali had been accused of involvement in a "reign of terror" in the city of Chittagong.
He was found guilty of eight of the 14 charges he faced including the abduction and killing of a teenager who supported the creation of a state independent from Pakistan.
Six opposition leaders have now been executed for war crimes since the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, set up a war crimes tribunal in 2010. Five were top leaders of the Jamaat party.
The International Crimes Tribunal have so far sentenced 24 people to death and 18 to jail for varying terms on charge of genocide and crimes against humanity. (Sources: bbc, 04/09/2016)
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