Delwar Hossain Sayedee died

Jamaat-e-Islami leader and war crimes convict Delwar Hossain Sayedee died at the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in the capital on Monday (14 August) night at 8:40 pm in jail custody. BSMMU Director Brigadier General Md Rezaur Rahman told that Sayedee died at 8:40 pm on Monday after suffering a cardiac arrest.

Earlier officials of Kashimpur Jail Gazipur took him to Shaheed Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College Hospital on Sunday night after he had fallen ill. Later on he was shifted to the BSMMU. BSMMU Director Rezaur said Sayedee had heart complications and diabetes.

He also said Sayedee’s body would be sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital for a post-mortem as he died in custody.

‘He came with myocardial infarction last night. He suffered another attack this evening,’ Rezaur said.

Meanwhile the two sons of Sayedee were present at the hospital and the body would be handed over to his family once the formalities are done, said the BSMMU director.

The law-enforcing agencies have beefed up security in the BSMMU area following Sayedee’s death, said Mohammad Salman Farsi, an assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police to the media.

Earlier The International Crimes Tribunal handed down the death penalty to Sayedee in 2013 on two counts of crimes against humanity committed during the 1971 Liberation War in which included murders and arson attacks on Hindu households in Pirojpur disstrict.

Later in 2014 The Supreme Court reduced Sayedee’s death sentence to imprisonment until death. The Supreme Court sentenced Sayedee to prison until death on three charges.

Complaint against of him included murders and arson in a Hindu neighbourhood, abduction and rape as wwell as forcible conversion of Hindus.

Sayedee, at that time a youth of around 30 years of age who was known by the surname of Shikdar.

At that time he became a member of the local Peace Committee, an infamous social platform mobilised centrally by right-wing political parties stood oppose to Bangladesh’s independence.

In political party Jamaat-e-Islami he was as the Nayeb-e-Amir, or chief’s deputy. He was popular among Jamaat supporters for his Islamist lectures.

Sayedee was arrested on June 29, 2010, on the charges of hurting religious sentiments, and on August 2, 2010, he was shown arrested in a case of crimes against humanity.