Dhaka, Jun 20 (bdnews24.com) – Doctors at the National Heart Foundation Hospital have cleared blockage in the heart arteries of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee through angioplasty, his counsel says.

Tajul Islam told bdnews24.com on Wednesday night that Sayedee was under observation at the Coronary Care Unit.

Sayedee, facing war crimes trial, was shifted to the Foundation from the Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital on Wednesday following a directive of the International Crimes Tribunal-1.

The tribunal directed the prison authorities to shift Sayedee after reviewing a defence counsel's plea to move the Jamaat leader to another hospital on the ground that ICH does not have the medical facilities his treatment requires.

Before passing the order, ICT-1 Chairman Justice Mohammad Nizamul Huq said the medical report showed four blockages in Sayedee's heart and "two of them are almost 90 percent."

The counsel told bdnews24.com: "Doctors kept him observation for 24 hours after the procedure."

He said they had opened the blocked arteries by inserting stents into three arteries.

However, the National Heart Foundation Hospital remained tight-lipped about Sayedee's treatment.

Its Information Officer told bdnews24.com that she had not been briefed to brief media while duty doctors declined to make any comment as bdnews24.com tried to reach them repeatedly.

A medical officer, who cannot be named, however, confirmed Sayedee's treatment, but could not say who was supervising the treatment.

Sayedee was admitted to the Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital from Dhaka Central Jail as he had complained of chest pain on Jun 14 evening, soon after he was taken to jail on expiry of his parole after conducting the funeral of his elder son.

His son Rafique-Bin-Sayedee, 43, died of cardiac arrest on Jun 13.

The three-judge tribunal has been set up to try crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.

However, an on-duty doctor Nazrul Islam at CCU told bdnews24.com late in the night that the hospital Director would brief the media on Thursday.

"The Director told me that he will brief (the media) in the morning."

bdnews24.com/nih/nir/2345h