(12 Dec 2013) Television stations in Bangladesh said late on Thursday that an opposition leader convicted of 1971 war crimes has been executed.
Earlier in the day, the country's Supreme Court cleared the way for Abdul Quader Mollah's execution when it rejected a last-minute appeal filed by his lawyers.
The execution had been on hold since Mollah was granted a reprieve on Tuesday night, just hours before he was to be put to death.
Mollah was convicted of war crimes committed during the nation's war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.
The 65-year-old's execution is likely to usher in a new wave of political violence ahead of national elections set for next month.
Mollah's party, Jamaat-e-Islami, an ally of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, had warned of "dire consequences" if he were executed.
His lawyers were trying to convince the Supreme Court to throw out the sentence when it began hearing the case for a petition of review on Wednesday.
"We're surprised by this judgment and we believe that justice has been denied to our client," Mollah's defence lawyer Abdur Razzaq said on Thursday after the Supreme Court dismissed the review petition.
"He has been sentenced to death on the basis of a single witness who said three things in three different places. We don't know what is in the body of the judgment. We'll be able to know it after the full judgment is signed," he said.
Since Tuesday evening a group of predominantly student protesters had been gathering at a major intersection in Dhaka, in anticipation of Mollah's execution.
They gathered once again on Thursday to celebrate the Supreme Court decision to throw out Mollah's petition.
The execution may complicate an already critical political situation in Bangladesh.
The opposition has carried out violent protests for weeks to back a demand for an independent caretaker government to oversee general elections set for 5 January.
In February, a special tribunal found Mollah guilty of killing a student and a family of 11, and of aiding Pakistani troops in killing 369 others during the independence war.
He was sentenced to life in prison, but the Supreme Court changed that to a death sentence in September.
Until it gained independence in 1971, Bangladesh was the eastern wing of Pakistan.
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