13 May 2017, Sat, 9:45

SC to hold hearing on Allama Sayedee’s plea Sunday

The Supreme Court will hold hearing on Sunday on the review petitions filed against its verdict that commuted death sentence of renowned preacher of the holy Quran Allama Delawar Hossain Sayedee to imprisonment until death in a controversial case of crimes against humanity, committed during the liberation war of the country.
The petitions have been included as item No. 30 in the cause list of a five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, for hearing on Sunday.
The government and Allama Sayedee filed two separate review petitions with the apex court in January last year with different prayers. The government in its petition sought death penalty for Sayedee for his war crimes during the 1971 Liberation War, while Sayedee, a top leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, in his plea prayed for acquittal of the war crimes charges.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 28, 2014, sentenced Maulana Sayedee to death for killing Ibrahim Kutti and one Bisa Bali in Pirojpur in 1971, even though it had found him guilty of eight charges.
After hearing two appeals filed by Allama Sayedee and the government, on September 17, 2014, a five-member bench of the apex court, headed by the then Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, delivered a short order based on majority views, commuting Sayedee's death sentence to imprisonment until death.
On April 6 this year, the apex court fixed May 14 [Sunday] for hearing the review petitions.
The other justices of the concerned bench are Justice Abdul Wahab Mia, Justice SM Hossen, Justice Hasan Foyez Siddiqui and Justice Mirza Hossain Haider.