Bangladesh upholds death sentence for war collaborator

 Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence for a top leader of an Islamist party for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the country's independence war against Pakistan in 1971, according to ABC News.

A four-member panel headed by the country's Chief Justice S.K. Sinha dismissed the appeal by Jamaat-e-Islami party's Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed against a 2013 verdict sentencing him to death.

Mojaheed was convicted of five charges including murder, abduction and torture in 2013. The same year, the country's High Court upheld the death sentence and Mojaheed then went to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court.

The 65-year-old will be hanged if the case is not reviewed by the same court or if he doesn't get a presidential clemency.

Bangladesh blames Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people during the nine-month war of independence from Pakistan. An estimated 200,000 women were raped and about 10 million people fled to refugee camps in neighboring India, which helped Bangladesh with training, arms and other support to fight.