A major 1971 war crimes convict and fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee died on Monday at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) Hospital as he was being treated there after a cardiac arrest, hospital sources said. He was 83, reports BSS.
“He died at 8:40pm,” a BSMMU official said.
Sayedee’s death came a day after he was admitted to the hospital following a heart attack at Kashimpur Central Jail in Gazipur on the outskirts of the capital.
Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT-BD) handed him down death penalty in 2013 for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War siding with the Pakistani occupation forces.
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court later in 2014 commuted the sentence and ordered the convict be imprisoned until his natural death.
Sayedee was found guilty of six major charges while the apex court found valid three of those including killing, rapes and forceful conversion of a number of Hindus to Islam.
Bangladesh launched the war crimes trial in 2010 in line with Awami League’s election pledges while Sayeedi was arrested in the same year to be exposed to justice.