Verdict on Sayedee appeal tomorrow
The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict tomorrow on an appeal filed by Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee challenging the death penalty given to him in a war crimes case.
The ruling of a government appeal in connection with Sayedee’s verdict is also due for tomorrow.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain is expected to announce the verdict tomorrow morning, as the appeals have been enlisted in the day’s cause list of the court as the first item.
Meanwhile, Jamaat is likely to announce tough agitation programme including hartal if the Supreme Court upheld Sayedee’s capital punishment, party sources told The Daily Star.
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.
During the hearing, defence counsels -- Khandker Mahbub Hossain and SM Shahjahan -- told the bench that Tribunal-1 had convicted and sentenced Sayedee on false and baseless documents and evidence and that Sayedee should be acquitted of all charges.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam prayed to the Appellate Division to affirm the Tribunal-1 verdict that sentenced Sayedee to death, saying all the charges against Sayedee were proved beyond reasonable doubt.
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.
The Jamaat-Shibir men in Bogra even tried to coax people into joining in by a propaganda that Sayedee's face was seen on the moon and that it was people’s holy duty to save the Jamaat nayeb-e-ameer.
This is the second crimes against humanity case appeal on which the Appellate Division is set to announce a judgment.
On September 17 last year, this court had handed down the death penalty to another Jamaat leader Abdul Quader Mollah for his wartime atrocities in 1971. Mollah was executed on December 12 last year.
Meanwhile, Jamaat policymakers this evening held an emergency meeting to discuss its next course of action regarding the SC verdict.
After the meeting, the party issued a statement calling upon the countrymen to pray for Sayedee so that the government cannot victimise the Jamaat leader.
Jamaat, which enforced countrywide hartal on February 28 when ICT-1 delivered its verdict, today abstained from announcing any such programme protesting SC’s verdict next morning.
Jamaat high-ups have given instruction to all its leaders and activists and its student wing--Islami Chhatra Shibir -- to get prepared for any tough movement if SC upheld Sayedee’s death penalty, a Shibir leader told The Daily Star this evening.
In the statement issued tonight, Jamaat demanded immediate release of Sayedee saying that the government has kept him confining illegally and he was given the capital punishment out of “false and fictitious” charges.
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