SC verdict on Sayedee’s appeal today

The Supreme Court is now set to deliver today (Wednesday) its verdict on an appeal filed by Jamaat leader Delawar Hossain Sayedee against the death penalty he was handed down last year in a case of wartime crimes.
Reports of agencies said that the SC website showed Tuesday the matter put on Wednesday's "cause list" as the first item.
Analogous with it, the apex court will also give its ruling on a government appeal in connection with Sayedee's verdict.
Hearings on the appeals concluded on April 16 this year and the court kept its verdict pending.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain, is expected to announce the crucial verdict in the morning, as the twin-appeals come first on the day's cause list of the court.
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 28 last year sentenced Sayedee to death for killing Ibrahim Kutti and one Bisa Bali in his hometown Pirojpur in 1971.
However, the tribunal found him guilty on eight counts of charges filed against him.
On March 28 last year, the senior Jamaat-e-Islami leader filed an appeal with the SC for acquittal on all charges.
The same day, the government submitted a separate appeal seeking Sayedee's punishment on all the eight charges for the sake of 'full justice'.
The other charges Sayedee was convicted of include his association with Pakistani soldiers to abduct three women and rape them, torturing people, looting and setting fire to the houses of Hindus, forcing them to convert to Islam in Pirojpur, and forcing them to leave the country during the 1971 Liberation War.
After concluding the hearing of arguments, the SC bench on April 16 this year kept the appeals waiting for delivery of judgment. The hearing went on for 48 days.
During the hearings, defence counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain and SM Shahjahan had told the bench that Tribunal-1 had convicted and sentenced Sayedee on 'false and baseless' documents and evidence and so Sayedee should be acquitted of all charges.
After last year's tribunal verdict awarding him capital punishment, Jamaat-Shibir activists staged violent demonstrations across the country.