Attorney General Mahbubey Alam yesterday said that the government would move a review petition with the Appellate Division seeking death sentence for convicted war criminal and Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee.
“The state will file a review petition against the sentence [of Sayedee] after getting the full judgement,” Mahbubey told reporters at his office. He hoped that the court would overturn the previous verdict and hand down capital punishment.
The International Crimes Tribunal 1 had sentenced Sayedee to death on February 28, 2013 for his complicity in crimes against humanity against the Hindus and freedom fighters in Pirojpur during the 1971 Liberation War.
But in the appeal case verdict, the top court on September 17 commuted his punishment to imprisonment until death. The court is yet to release its full verdict.
After the appeal case judgement, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, several ministers and war trial campaigners had expressed frustration over the sentence.
On the other hand, the Jamaat members conducted massive attacks on the law enforcers, ruling party supporters and Hindus in many districts across the country in 2013 in protest against the tribunal verdict killing dozens of people and destroying state properties.
Mahbubey, the top law officer of the country, also said that the full verdict in Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid’s case would be published soon. The apex court gave its judgement upholding the tribunal’s death sentence on June 16.
Upon getting the full text of the judgement, the government will start process for executing the death row convict.
The war criminal, who had acted as the chief of al-Badr force, can seek a review of the sentence once the full judgement is released. He can also seek presidential mercy admitting his crimes.
The full verdict in the case of convicted war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury is also pending with the top court.
So far, the government has executed the death sentences of top war criminals and Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Molla and Mohammad Kamaruzzaman.
