War crime trial: Bangla SC rejects Jamaat leader's plea

Bangladesh's Supreme Court today quashed a petition from convicted war criminal Delawar Hossain Sayedee urging two judges to abstain from hearing his appeal against the death penalty given to him.
A three-member appellate division bench headed by Chief Justice Mohammed Muzammel Hossain dismissed the plea, in which Sayedee claimed that Justices Surendra Kumar Sinha and A H M Shamsuddin Choudhury Manik may be biased in dealing with his appeal.
Sayedee, a member of Jamaat-e-Islami's Executive Council, was given the death penalty on February 28 by the country's special International Crimes Tribunal, set up to deal with war crimes cases, for his offences during the 1971 liberation war.

The reason behind the apex court's order could not be ascertained immediately as a copy of the verdict was not made public, The Daily Star newspaper reported.