Bangladesh’s war crimes court on Tuesday, Dec 23 sentenced a former government minister to hang for rape and genocide, Agence France-Presse reported.

Syed Mohammad Kaiser became the 15th person to be convicted of atrocities by the International Crimes Tribunal, which found him guilty of heading a militia that rounded up and killed some 150 people in the nine-month conflict.

The 73-year-old, who uses a wheelchair, did not react as the judge read out the verdict and said he would be “hanged by the neck until his death”.

Lawyers for Kaiser, a former minister with the Jatiya Party which forms part of Bangladesh’s ruling coalition, have rejected the charges and say they will appeal.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina created the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic court, in 2010.

Judge Obaidul Hassan said the prosecution proved “beyond reasonable doubt” that Kaiser had established the militia, which created a “reign of terror”.

Kaiser joined the centre-right Jatiya Party in the 1980s and was elected to parliament. He was made state minister for agriculture by military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad.

The BNP and Jamaat have called the trials politically motivated, aimed at eliminating opposition leaders rather than rendering justice.

Rights groups have said they fall short of international standards and lack any foreign oversight.

The government maintains they are needed to heal the wounds of the war, which it says left three million people dead.

Independent researchers put the toll much lower.