Ex-Party Chief Jailed for 90 Years

A 91-year-old former chief of an Islamic party in Bangladesh has been sentenced to 90 years in jail for crimes against humanity during the country's 1971 independence war.

A special tribunal of three judges announced the decision against Ghulam Azam in a packed courtroom Monday in the Dhaka, the capital. The panel said the former leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party deserved capital punishment, but received a jail sentence instead because of his advanced age.

Bangladesh says the Pakistani army killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women with the assistance of local collaborators during the war.

The tribunal said Azam was guilty of all 61 charges under five categories: conspiracy, incitement, planning, abetment and failure to prevent killing.

Previous verdicts against Jamaat-e-Islami leaders have sparked violence.