Bangladesh ex-Islamist leader convicted of war crimes dies of heart attack in hospital
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A former Bangladeshi Islamist party leader who was convicted of war crimes involving his country's 1971 independence war has died of a heart attack in a prison cell of a government hospital.
The 91-year-old Ghulam Azam died late Thursday after life support was removed at the Bangabandhu Sehikh Mujib Medical University in the capital, Dhaka.
A special tribunal last year sentenced Azam, a former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami party, to 90 years in jail on 61 charges of war crimes during Bangladesh war of independence from Pakistan.
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Bangladesh accuses the Pakistani army and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people.
Azam led the party until 2000, and was still considered to be its spiritual leader. Jamaat-e-Islami claims his trial was politically motivated, which authorities deny.