Dhaka - A special war crimes tribunal on Thursday sentenced a Bangladeshi opposition politician to death in absentia for crimes committed during the country's 1971 war of independence with Pakistan.
Zahid Hossain Khokon, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was sentenced to die for mass killings and rape during the nine-month war.
He was also handed 40 years of imprisonment for other crimes against humanity.
Ten out of 11 allegations of wartime atrocities were proved beyond doubt against Khokon, said prosecution lawyer Mokhlesur Rahman Badal.
Investigators said Khokon was a member of the wartime vigilante group Razakar, which aided the Pakistani army.
He was directly involved in killings, rape, looting, arson attacks and forcible conversion of Hindus to Muslim during the war, investigators said.
The war left an estimated three million people dead, according to government estimates.
Khokon has been fugitive since he was charged with war crimes in August 2013 and the court conducted the trial in his absence.
He is the mayor of a municipality in the southern district of Faridpur.
Prosecution lawyers said they have learned that Khokon had been staying in Sweden.
Khokon has to surrender before the court if he wants to file an appeal against the verdict, Badal said.
Abdus Sukur, a state-appointed defence lawyer, said his client did not get justice. - Sapa-dpa