Order on Sayedee’s division facilities tomorrow

The High Court will pass an order tomorrow on whether convicted war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee will get division facilities in jail.

The jail authorities can provide second class division facilities to a convicted prisoner if the government wants. The facilities include a bed, a table, a chair, a mosquito-net, a newspaper and better food, a jail official told The Daily Star.

Today, the HC fixed tomorrow for passing order on a writ petition filed by Sayedee seeking its directive on the jail authorities to provide him with the division facilities in jail and to send him to a specialized hospital for treatment.

The bench Justice Syed Muhammad Dastagir Husain and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir set the date after concluding hearing on the petition.

Sayedee, who has been serving jail sentence in Kashimpur Jail-1, has recently filed the writ petition with the HC saying that he had got division facilities while he was an under-trial prisoner.

But, Sayedee said in the petition that he is not being given such facilities in jail after he was convicted.

Appearing for Sayedee, Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain prayed to the HC direct the jail authorities to provide him with the division facilities in jail and to send him to a specialized hospital for treatment.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam opposed the writ petition, saying that Sayedee has not right to move such a petition before the HC under the constitution. 

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on February 28, 2013, sentenced Sayedee to death for killing Ibrahim Kutti and one Bisa Bali in Pirojpur during the country’s Liberation War in 1971, even though it had found him guilty on eight charges filed against him.

Following two appeals by Sayedee and the government, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on September 17, 2014 commuted Sayedee's death sentence to imprisonment until death.