SC reduces Jamaat leader Sayedee`s death sentence to imprisonment until death

Desk Report:

The Supreme Court today commuted the death sentence of Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee to imprisonment till death for his crimes against humanity committed during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.

A five-member bench of the apex court, headed by the Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, came up with the judgement amid tight security.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 28 last year sentenced Sayedee to death for killing Ibrahim Kutti and one Bisa Bali in Pirojpur in 1971, even though it had found him guilty on eight charges filed against him.

On March 28 last year, Sayedee filed an appeal with the SC seeking acquittal on all charges. The same day, the government submitted a separate appeal seeking Sayedee’s punishment on all the eight charges.

The other charges Sayedee was convicted of include his association with Pakistani soldiers to abduct three women and rape them, torturing people, looting and setting fire to the houses of Hindus, forcing them convert to Islam in Pirojpur, and forcing them to leave the country in 1971.

After concluding hearing arguments the SC bench on April 16 this year kept the appeals waiting for delivering judgment on them. The hearing went on for 48 days.

Protesting the Tribunal-1 verdict, the activists of Jamaat and pro-Jamaat student body Islami Chhatra Shibir last year went on the rampage in many places across the country that left several people dead.