Bangladesh orders top political figure to hang

Bangladesh's war crimes tribunal has ordered the execution of a senior political leader after convicting him of atrocities during the country's 1971 independence war, triggering violence outside the court.

Three Molotov cocktails thrown by suspected anti-government activists exploded outside the courthouse in central Dhaka as Abdus Subhan, a vice president of one of Bangladesh's largest parties, Jamaat-e-Islami, was found guilty of murder, genocide and torture.

The verdict is expected to further inflame tensions in Bangladesh, where an alliance of opposition parties, including Jamaat, is trying to topple the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

At least 87 people have died since early January when the leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) called on supporters to blockade roads, railways and waterways to force Hasina to call new polls.

Justice Obaidul Hassan, head of the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), handed down the sentence, saying the 79-year-old leader would be "hanged by the neck until his death." He added that Subhan's advanced age could not be a "mitigating factor" given the seriousness of his crimes.

Prosecutors said Subhan was the head of Jamaat and a pro-Pakistani militia in the northwestern district town of Pabna and that he actively took part in the murder of hundreds of innocent villagers and minority Hindus during the 1971 conflict, which saw what was then East Pakistan secede from Islamabad.

Defense lawyers said they would appeal the verdict as the charges against Subhan were "false and baseless."

“We will bring the mistakes to notice when we will appeal,” defense lawyer Shishir Manir told reporters.

Subhan is the 17th person to be convicted by the court, which is a domestic tribunal set up by Hasina's government without any international oversight.

The court has mostly focused on the trials of the Jamaat leaders who opposed the break-up of Pakistan and saw the liberation war by Bengalis as a conspiracy by majority-Hindu India.

Previous death sentences handed down against Jamaat leaders, including its supreme and spiritual leaders, plunged Bangladesh into its deadliest unrest in 2013.

Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse