Dhaka: Condemned war criminal Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee filed a review petition against the Supreme Court verdict that seeks his death penalty to jail unto death.

Sayedee lawyers submitted the review petition at about 10:00am seeking his acquittal from all charges, said Sayedee’s lawyer Saifur Rahman.

The review petition highlights the weaknesses of the charges brought against Sayeede, said Saifur.

He said, Khandakar Mahbub Hossain, another counsel of the convict, will submit his formal reaction on the review at about 1:00pm on Sunday.

Earlier, on 13 January, the lawyers of Sayedee met him in Kashimpur jail 1 in Gazipur. Sayedee asked them to seek acquittal from the charges in which he was found guilty.

On 12 January, the State filed a review petition with the Supreme Court seeking death sentence for the Jamaat leader for his crimes against humanity during the nation’s struggle for birth in 1971.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) 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.