war crimes trial
SC?verdict on SQ Chy appeal July 29
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court yesterday fixed July 29 for delivering its verdict on an appeal filed by BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury against the tribunal verdict awarding him death penalty for wartime offences.After concluding hearing on the appeal from both the prosecution and the defence, the four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha fixed July 29 for delivering its final verdict.
The other members of the bench are: Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique. During the closing argument, Advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, counsel for Salauddin, told the court that his client was not involved in any crimes against humanity as he was not in Bangladesh during the Liberation War.
He prayed to the apex court to acquit the BNP leader of the charges brought against him for war crimes. On the other hand, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam, in his final argument, prayed for upholding the death penalty for SQ Chowdhury.
Alam also said that the BNP leader had failed to produce any certificate and passport before the court on the issue that he had studied in Punjab University and stayed there during the War of Liberation.
Considering the evidence of the massacre carried out by Salauddin in Chittagong during the Liberation War in 1971 in cooperation with the Pakistani occupation forces and his own forces, the ICT-1 should have awarded death sentence to the BNP leader in seven charges, he said.
The chief state counsel sought death penalty for SQ Chowdhury saying that the charges brought against the accused have been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
Advocate Shahjahan, another counsel for the BNP leader, told the apex court that most of the prosecution witnesses have made false statements against his client before the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT). The prosecution witnesses gave hearsay statements against Salauddin before the tribunal. Such hearsay statements were not reliable since they did not see him to commit crimes during the Liberation War in 1971, he stated.
The prosecution witnesses statements should be cancelled, considering this legal point, and his client should be acquitted of all charges, Shahjahan argued.
Salahuddin was arrested on December 15 in 2010 in connection with a case for arson attack on a vehicle and was later shown arrested on December 9 of that year in a case for crimes against humanity.
On April 4, 2012, the International Crimes Tribunal indicted Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for his involvement in crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War on 23 counts under different provisions of section 3 (2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.
On 1 October 2013, the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-1 led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir found Salauddin guilty in nine of the 23 charges brought against him. The tribunal handed him death penalty in four charges, 20 years in jail on three charges and five years in jail for two other charges. The ICT-1 found Salauddin, the son of Pakistan Convention Muslim League president Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, guilty of crimes of genocide at Rauzan and murder of minority Hindu community members, including Nutan Chandra Singh, the founder of Kundeshwari Owsadhalay of Gohira, Awami League leaders and supporters of Bangladeshs war of independence.
The tribunal also found him guilty on the charge of torture carried out on captives at his ancestral house Goods Hill in the port city of Chittagong during the 1971 Liberation War. Salauddin was the only sitting member of parliament to have been convicted of war crimes and condemned to hang.
On October 29, 2013, Salauddin filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court seeking acquittal of the charges. However, the state did not file appeal with the apex court as the ICT had awarded him death penalty for wartime offences.
