Bangladeshi leader jailed for war crime dies

The former leader of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party, Ghulam Azam, whose imprisonment on war crimes charges triggered violent protests last year, has died of a heart attack in a prison cell of a government hospital.

His spokesman, Abdul Majid Bhuiyan said, the 91-year old man died yesterday after life support was removed from him.

A special tribunal last year sentenced Azam to 90 years in prison on 61 charges of war crimes during the Bangladesh 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Azam's son,salman al-Azam said the family has never been satisfied with the trial proceedings or the judgement.

About three million people died in the eight-month war and more than 250 thousand women were raped by the Pakistani army and its local collaborators.

ALJAZEERA