DHAKA: In a surprise verdict, Bangladesh Supreme Court today commuted the death sentence of Delwar Hossain Sayedee, a key 1971 war criminal and fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami leader, triggering clashes between police and protesters who demanded the execution of the Islamist leader.
“He shall serve in prison for the rest of his natural life,” Chief Justice M Muzammel Hossain pronounced in a crowded courtroom, overturning a war-crimes tribunal ruling that awarded the 74-year-old leader death penalty last year.
A five-member bench of the apex court, headed by Hossain, pronounced the verdict by “majority view”.
Sayedee is a stalwart of Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh’s 1971 independence siding with the then Pakistani junta, forming notorious militia groups like Al-Badr ad Al-Shams as auxiliary forces of the Pakistani troops.
He was handed down death penalty by International Crimes Tribunal in February last year that triggered the deadliest political violence in the country’s history.
The Tribunal had found Sayedee guilty of six major charges while the apex found valid three of those including killing, rapes and forceful conversion of a number of Hindus to Islam and relieved him of charges of mass killings.
In an instant reaction, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said the verdict has “saddened” him as he expected the apex court to uphold the tribunal judgment.
“My expectation was that his death penalty would be upheld, which has not been fulfilled…so I feel bad,” he told reporters. He said that he now await the delivery of the full verdict for his detailed analysis.
Alam said the verdict unmasked Sayedee’s image as an ardent servant of Islam as allegations of forceful conversion of several Hindus was proved against him.
“Islam never allows forceful conversion to Islam which he (Sayedee) did it in 1971,” he said.
A son of Sayedee said he was deprived of justice as the apex court should have “acquitted my father and we would like to get it reviewed” but Alam said under the law there is no scope for such review for the cases of war crimes convicts.
Soon after the verdict, hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets here demanding the death penalty for Sayedee.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse the demonstrators who had converged on Dhaka University. The protesters shouted slogans and hurled stones at police.
Authorities earlier called out paramilitary troops to guard the capital and other major cities fearing outbreak of violence following the Supreme Court ruling.
Nearly 100 people, including policemen, were killed when Jamaat activists went on rampage in several cities after the Tribunal sentenced Sayedee to death last year. TV channels showed non-partisan Ganajagaran Mancha activists on the streets at Shahbagh Square.
“We are not satisfied, we reject this verdict…We wanted him to be hanged,” Mancha spokesman Imran H Sarkar said as the protestors chanted slogans.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami called a nationwide general strike tomorrow and on Sunday to mount pressure on the government to release Sayedee from jail.
“The 48-hour strike will start from 6am Thursday and continue until 6am Friday. It will resume at 6am Sunday and end on 6am Monday,” Acting JeI chief Mokbul Ahmad said in a statement.
The apex court on April 16 wrapped up the appeal hearing against the special tribunal judgment on Sayedee.
The tribunal last year said it found valid eight of the 18 charges including mass killings, arson, lootings and forceful conversion non-Muslims to Islam against the Islamist leader, who is a former lawmaker and Islamic orator.
Chief defense counsel Khondker Mahbubuddin earlier claimed they successfully pointed out that a “wrong man” was tried and sentenced to death as another person with Sayedee’s namesake actually carried out the atrocities during the 1971 Liberation War.
The defense had raised the same argument during Sayedee’s trial at the Tribunal but it observed the claim baseless and sentenced him to death on charges of “crimes against humanity” siding with Pakistani troops.
“Rather we tried Delwar Hossain Sayedee who was a 30-year old young man during the 1971 Liberation War…who was an active member of the Peace Committee and… earned goodwill among the Pakistani occupation forces,” the tribunal had said.
On March 28 last year, Sayedee filed an appeal with the apex court seeking acquittal from all the charges.
The same day, the government submitted a separate appeal to it, demanding capital punishment on all eight charges.
The Tribunal has handed down death penalties to eight people on 1971 war crime charges and ordered two others including Alim to languish in jail until their death as they so far completed the trial of 11 war crimes key-accused.
Only one of them, Jamaat’s joint secretary general Abdul Quader Mollah has been executed while two of the convicts were now living in the US and Britain and the other cases were now pending before the apex Supreme Court for review.
Of the 10 convicts, eight are Jamaat stalwarts and the rest two are leaders of its crucial ally Bangladesh Nationalist Party of ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia.–PTI
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