Story highlights He was sentenced to death for genocide, rape and the mass murder of intellectuals

Crowds gathered in Dhaka to celebrate his execution

Dhaka, Bangladesh (CNN) Bangladesh has executed a top leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, Motiur Rahman Nizami, for war crimes committed during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Motiur Rahman Nizami

"Motiur Rahman has been hanged to death at 12:10 a.m. (Wednesday)," Jahangir Kabir, Superintendent of the Dhaka Central Jail said.

The 73-year-old was hanged after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal on May 5. Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters on Tuesday evening that Nizami did not opt to seek presidential clemency.

He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2014 by a special tribunal for orchestrating genocide, rape and the massacre of top intellectuals during the conflict.

It's estimated between 1 million and 3 million people were killed in the nine-month war.

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