By Mainul Islam Khan
DHAKA
Bangladesh’s top court on Wednesday has overturned the death sentence previously handed to a prominent Islamist leader for war crimes, sentencing him instead to life imprisonment.
Security has been tightened across the country in anticipation of the verdict for Delwar Hossain Sayedee, the deputy leader of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party.
At least 70 people were killed in February 2013, in clashes sparked after Sayedee was sentenced to death by the International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic court investigating with war crimes allegedly committed when Bangladesh became independent in 1971.
Jamaat-e-Islami has called for a 24-hour countrywide strike on Thursday to protest against the verdict.
“Although the court has reduced the punishment, we still think we deserve better,” said Sayedee’s son Masood Sayedee.
The tribunal’s prosecutor Turin Afroze said they had expected the death sentence to stand but would respect the decision.
“We are yet to get the full verdict and only then would understand where more facts and evidence were needed,” she said.
Police used batons and water cannon to disperse a group of protesters who have demanded capital punishment for all found guilty of war crimes.
Sayedee, who has been in jail since June 2009, was found guilty of five of 20 charges against him and had initially been sentenced to death for two murders and setting fire to Hindu homes.
The war crimes tribunal was set up in 2009 to investigate alleged war crimes including mass killings, rape and destruction of villages, committed during the war that led to Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971.
Most of those charged are from Sayedee’s Jamaat-e-Islami party and in December 2013 one of its senior leaders, Abdul Qauder Mollah, was executed.
Legal observers and Human Rights Watch have criticized the process, questioning the independence and impartiality of the tribunal.
www.aa.com.tr/en
