A media tycoon and key figure in Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party has been sentenced to death for war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.
Mir Qasem Ali, the owner of a television station and newspaper aligned with the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was found guilty of 10 charges by the court in Dhaka on November 2, including murder and abduction.
The government in Bangladesh shut down Ali’s television station in 2013 for inflaming religious tensions.
Ali’s attorney said the charges are “baseless and false” and said they would appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court.
The ruling against Ali comes just days after Jamaat-e-Islami leader Motiur Rahman Nizami was sentenced to death by a court in Bangladesh for heading a pro-Pakistan militia during the 1971 war.
