War criminal Yusuf Ali, jailed until death, dies in hospital

War criminal SM Yusuf Ali, who was sentenced to ‘imprisonment until death’ by a war crimes tribunal, has died in a hospital.

The 85-year-old was declared dead at Dhaka Medical College Hospital at 8:50pm Thursday, said his son.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced him to prison until death on Jul 18 after a trial that found him guilty of abducting and killing Nurul Amin, a Liberation War organiser in Jamalpur.

Md Ashraf Hossain, Md Abdul Mannan, Md Abdul Bari, Advocate Shamsul Huq aka ‘Badar Bhai’, former Islami Bank official Sharif Ahammed, Md Abul Hashem and ‘Harun’ are all sentenced to jail until death in the case.

Of the eight convicts, Shamsul and Yusuf were in prison.

Their appeal against the International Crimes Tribunal’s verdict was awaiting hearing at the Supreme Court.

Yusuf had been kept in Dhaka Central Jail in Keraniganj. He had been suffering age-related complications, said Senior Jail Superintendent Jahangir Kabir.

He was taken to the DMCH after he fell ill on Thursday noon.

Former headmaster at Jamalpur’s Singhajani Bahumukhi High School, Yusuf was involved in politics of Jamaat-e-Islami during Bangladesh’s Liberation War.

He contested and defeated in the 1970 election as a Jamaat candidate. He had joined the local collaborators’ group, Razakar forces, which assisted Pakistani Army against the freedom fighters, when the war began in 1971.  

Yusuf, who hails from Madhupur in Jamalpur district, had been in prison from the time of his arrest on Mar 3, 2015 from Jamalpur town.