"They will be hanged by neck until they are dead," ruled Judge Mohammad Akhtaruzzaman of the Third Additional Metropolitan Sessions Court, in what is being dubbed as the world's biggest ever criminal trial.
"The atrocities were so heinous that even the dead bodies were not given their rights," Judge Akhtaruzzaman told the packed court in the capital Dhaka.
Out of 846 accused 26 of them being civilians, the court handed down life imprisonments to 158 rebel soldiers and three to 10 years of imprisonment to 251 others and acquitted 242 finding their no involvement in the carnage.