Delwar Hossain Sayeedi (2 February 1940 – 14 August 2023) was a Bangladeshi Islamic leader,[1][2] politician, public speaker, and convicted war criminal,[3] who served as a Member of Parliament representing the Pirojpur-1 constituency from 1996 to 2006.
[4][5] In 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) in Bangladesh found him guilty on eight out of twenty counts, which included murder, rape, and religious persecution.
[6][7][8] The verdict subsequently led to public protests and clashes between his supporters, opponents, and law enforcement agencies, resulting in a series of riots and unrest.
[20] Sayeedi was accused of involvement in numerous crimes, including the killing of over 50 individuals, arson, rape, looting, and coercion of Hindus to convert to Islam.
He argued that if Sayeedi was not barred from foreign travel, he might work against the government's efforts to bring justice for war crimes during that conflict.
[citation needed] On 21 March 2010, Syed Rejaul Haque Chandpuri, secretary general of the Bangladesh Tarikat Federation, filed a case accusing Delwar Hossain Sayeedi and five other Jamaat leaders of hurting religious sentiments.
[24][better source needed] On 12 August 2009, Manik Poshari filed a war crime case in Pirojpur against Delwar Hossain Sayeedi and four others.
[27] Some of the charges were (a) passing secret information on the gathering of people behind the Madhya Masimpur bus-stand to the Pakistan Army, and leading the Army there, where 20 unnamed people were killed by shooting; (b) abducting and killing of government officials (deputy magistrate – Saif Mizanur Rahman, sub-divisional police officer – Foyezur Rahman Ahmed, and sub-divisional officer – Abdur Razzak) of Pirojpur; (c) identifying and looting the houses and shops of people belonging to the Awami League, Hindu community, and supporters of the Liberation War at Parerhat Bazar under Pirojpur Sadar; (d) leading an operation, accompanied by Pakistan Army, to burn 25 houses of the Hindu community at Umedpur village (under the jurisdiction of Indurkani Police Station); (e) leading the group who abducted three women from the house of Gouranga Saha of Parerhat Bandar and handing them over to the Pakistan army for raping.
[34][35] "The apparent abduction of a witness in a trial at the ICT is a cause for serious concern about the conduct of the prosecution, judges and government," said a spokesperson for Human Rights Watch.
[36] The tribunal found Sayeedi guilty in 8 of the 20 charges, including mass killing, rape, arson, looting and force minority Hindus to convert to Islam during 1971.
[41][42] His defence at the trial argued that this was a case of mistaken identity saying that the original perpetrator was a man named Delwar Hossain Shikdar,[15] who had been apprehended and executed by freedom fighters after the war.
They noted that the organization neither endorsed the appeals for capital punishment in the case of Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, nor could it affirm that the trials aligned with global benchmarks for impartial legal proceedings.
[48] On 2 November 2011, Human Rights Watch released a statement urging the Bangladeshi government to address and investigate instances of intimidation and threats against defense lawyers and witnesses involved in cases at the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
[49] The Economist criticised the trial, stating that the presiding judge had resigned and Sayeedi's death sentence was handed down by three men who had not heard all the witnesses.
[50] On 17 September 2014, the Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain and comprising a five-member bench, delivered a verdict reducing Sayeedi's sentence from the death penalty to life imprisonment for war crimes.