SQ Chy appeal verdict today
The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will deliver its verdict today on the appeal filed by BNP leader, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, against the International Crimes Tribunals (ICT) verdict awarding him death penalty for wartime offences. The apex court in its daily cause list has marked Chowdhurys appeal (Criminal Appeal (A) 122/2013) as the number one item. The concerned authorities have beefed up security in and around the apex court to avoid any untoward incident ahead of the verdict.
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 on July 7 fixed July 29 for delivering its final verdict. The other members of the bench include Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
Talking to reporters, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam hoped that the apex court will uphold the death penalty awarded to Chowdhury for wartime crimes. In response to a query, he said that the Gonojagoron Manchas demand for upholding the death penalty for a war criminal was not contemptuous.
Earlier in the morning yesterday, advocate Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, counsel for Chowdhury, alleged that the Gonojagoron Mancha pressurising the apex court with
their demand tantamount to contempt of court.
Briefing reporters at his office this afternoon, the Attorney General said that the people of Bangladesh including different organisations have been demanding punishment for war criminals for a long time.
Shaheed Janani Jahanara Imam moved for the trial of war criminals and the present government was fulfilling that demand, he said. There is nothing contemptuous about the Manchas movement.
Hossain said that the Gonojagoron Mancha is chanting slogans, demanding death for Chowdhury although the trial against him is still pending in the apex court. He expressed hope that the SC will acquit his client and will take stern action against the Mancha for contempt of court.
During the closing arguments, advocate Hossain told the court that Chowdhury was not involved in any crime against humanity as he was not in Bangladesh during the Liberation War. On the other hand, the Attorney General in his final argument prayed for upholding the death penalty against Chowdhury.
The Attorney General sought death penalty for 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 gave false statements against his client before the ICT. The prosecution witnesses gave hearsay statements against Chowdhury before the tribunal. Such hearsay statements were not reliable since they did not see him committing crimes during the Liberation War in 1971, he stated.
The statements of prosecution witnesses should be cancelled and considering this legal point, his client should be acquitted of all charges, Shahjahan argued.
Salahuddin was arrested on December 15, 2010 in connection with a case for attack on a vehicle and was later shown arrested on December 9 that year in a case for crimes against humanity.
On April 4, 2012, the ICT indicted 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 October 1, 2013, the three-member International Crimes Tribunal-1 led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir found Chowdhury guilty on nine of the 23 charges brought against him. The tribunal handed him death penalty on four counts, 20 years in jail on three charges and five years in jail on two other charges.
The ICT-1 found Salauddin, son of Pakistan Convention Muslim League President Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, guilty 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.
Chowdhury is the only sitting member of Parliament to have been convicted of war crimes and condemned to hang.
On October 29, 2013, Chowdhury 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. The apex court started the appeal hearing on June 16, and at the end of a 13-day long hearing it fixed on July 7 the date for delivering its verdict.
