Dhaka: The State filed a review petition with the Supreme Court seeking death sentence for convicted war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee for his crimes against humanity during the nation's struggle for birth in 1971.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam on Tuesday told reporters, ‘The State filed a review petition seeking death penalty against war criminal Delwar Hossain Sayedee’s appeals verdict, which commuted his punishment from death penalty to life in prison until death.'

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 had sentence Sayedee to death in February 2013.

On 17 September last year, the Appellate Division bench headed by the then Chief Justice Md Muzammel Hossain commuted his punishment to imprisonment until death.    

On 31 December 2015, the Supreme Court’s full verdict was published, 15 months after the Appellate Division pronounced the verdict.

According to the rules, a petition for a review of the appeals verdict has to be filed within 15 days after the full verdict is published.

This is the first case of the war crimes trial, in which the State sought to maintain the tribunal’s verdict.