Anger over new Bangladesh death sentence for Abdul Quader Mollah The Bangladesh Supreme Court on Tuesday sentenced an opposition leader to death for war crimes following a judicial process dismissed by a British defence lawyer as a dangerously destabilising "political show trial." Abdul Quader Mollah, a 65-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leader condemned to life imprisonment earlier this year, now faces execution following a retrospective legal amendment and resentencing that sparked immediate protests from JI militants and other opponents of the government of Sheikh Hasina. "They are hell-bent on execution," said Toby Cadman, a British barrister hired as an international adviser by JI. It's been orchestrated from beginning to end. Tajul Islam, a defence lawyer, added: "We are shocked. This retrospective law change is unprecedented in the subcontinent. JI youth activists launched street demonstrations in the port of Chittagong immediately after Mr Mollah was sentenced to hang, and local newspapers reported violent clashes with the police. Mr Mollah, nicknamed "the butcher of Mirpur," was convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal - which, despite its name, is a domestic court - of crimes against humanity and war crimes. They involved the murder of civilians during the 1971 civil war that saw Bangladesh break away from Pakistan. "These facts have been corroborated," Mahbubey Alam, attorney-general, said of the charge of killing a family for which the death sentence was imposed. First [the witness's] mother was killed, her father was abducted, her two sisters were killed, one little brother was killed, one sister was killed, one sister was raped and killed. Four other current or former JI leaders have also been sentenced to death. JI supported Pakistan's brutal attempts to keep control of what was then East Pakistan, and its leaders have been loathed ever since by Bangladeshis who won independence with the help of neighbouring India. More than four decades after independence, however, JI's supporters say they are being persecuted by Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government purely because JI supports the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party of Khaleda Zia. A court recently declared JI to be illegal under Bangladesh's secular constitution, while police have seized and detained people regarded as critical of the government, including Adilur Rahman Khan, head of human rights group Odhikar. Rival groups of demonstrators - some demanding harsher penalties for JI convicts not condemned to hang and others showing support for JI or other Islamist groups - have periodically taken to the streets of Dhaka over the past year. Bangladeshi business leaders and intellectuals say the poisonous rivalry between Ms Hasina and Ms Zia could derail the economic rise of one of the world's poorest countries. They are hell-bent on execution. It's been orchestrated from beginning to end Toby Cadman, a British barrister/international adviser for JI "My concern is that there will obviously be mass demonstrations from both sides on the streets," said Mr Cadman, who added that Mr Mollah's defence counsel had filed an urgent appeal with the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. We've been warning the international community that they can't just sit idly by and do nothing. Both the UN and the US have intervened in recent weeks in an attempt to defuse rising political tensions in Bangladesh and ensure a fair general election, which is due by January. UN chief Ban Ki-moon, by telephone, and US secretary of state John Kerry, by letter, contacted Ms Hasina and Ms Zia and asked them to ensure free and fair elections.