[JURIST] The Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal [official website] on Thursday convicted [judgment, PDF] opposition politician MA Zahid Hossain Khokon to death for his role in killings and other war crimes perpetrated during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War [GlobalSecurity backgrounder]. The Tribunal found the accused guilty of the offenses of “murder, torture, deportation, rape, confinement, abduction and other inhumane acts” within the crimes against humanity sections of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act of 1973 [text]. Khokon, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) [official website], was tried in absentia and is currently a fugitive [AP report] believed to be residing with his family in Sweden.

A number of high profile Bangladesh politicians have been charged and convicted of crimes allegedly committed during the 1971 war with Pakistan. Earlier this month the Supreme Court of Bangladesh [official website] upheld [JURIST report] the death sentence of Islamist politician Mohammad Kamaruzzaman. The International Crimes Tribunal Bangladesh [JURIST news archive] convicted Kamaruzzaman last year for committing war crimes including mass murder during the 1971 War. In October a special tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced [JURIST report] Jamaat-e-Islami [party website; Global Security backgrounder] leader Motiur Rahman Nizami to death for crimes committed during the 1971 war. Also in October former Bangladeshi Islamist party leader Ghulam Azam, who was imprisoned for war crimes last year, died [JURIST report] of a heart attack in a prison cell of a government hospital.