Fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami's 91-year-old supremo Ghulam Azam was today sentenced to 90-year in jail by a special Bangladeshi tribunal for masterminding atrocities during the country's 1971 war of independence, the fifth and the most-awaited verdict on the war crimes cases.
"He (Azam) will serve 90 years in jail," chairman of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-1 A T M Fazle Kabir announced at the crowded courtroom here, amid tight security as Jamaat-e-Islami enforced a violent nationwide general strike today called another general strike tomorrow against the "politically motivated" sentencing.
He will serve the sentence "consecutively or till his death", Justice Kabir said as the wheeled-bound Azam remained stoney-faced.
Before the judgement was announced, police fired rubber bullets to disperse Azam's supporters protesting in the capital Dhaka and other cities.
The judgement, however, said Azam deserved the death penalty for the crimes he had committed in 1971 for siding with the Pakistani junta but his old age and physical condition forced the panel to deliver the 90 years of jail term.
Azam, who has left deep emotional scars in the collective national psyche by engineering war-time atrocities in 1971, was found guilty of all five categories of crime - conspiracy, planning, incitement, complicity and murder. He had been charged with 61 counts of crimes in all five categories.
Prosecution lawyers, during the trial earlier compared him with German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as his party cadres used to operate as Gestapo forces in killing the leading intelligentsia particularly just ahead of the final victory.
Under the verdict, Azam was handed down 10 years jail term for conspiracy in committing crimes against humanity, 10 years for planning, 20 years for incitement and 20 years for complicity.
He was sentenced to jail for another 30 years for the murder of police officer Siru Miah and his son Anwar Kamal and 36 others as they had sided with pro-independence forces.
A total of 16 prosecution witnesses including historians, rights activists and war crimes researchers testified against Azam while his son ex-army brigadier Abdullahil Aman Azmi appeared as the sole defence witness.
"Ghulam Azam's case is a unique one. Ghulam Azam was not physically present during these crimes but he has been accused of being the main man and the overseer of the war crimes during 1971," Justice Kabir said, as the panel pronounced the operative part of an abridged 75-page judgement.
Azam, the then chief of the East Pakistan wing of Jamaat-e-Islami party and Azam, a provincial minister in 1971, was present as the tribunal delivered the crucial verdict. He was "found guilty of all the charges" in course of the trial during the past one year.
