SC verdict on July 29
The Supreme Court is set to deliver its verdict on July 29 on the appeal filed by war criminal and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury challenging death penalty and other sentences handed down on him for his wartime offences.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha yesterday fixed the
date after hearing the appeal for 13 days.
The other judges of the bench are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
This is the fifth appeal regarding crimes against humanity in which the apex court is set to announce a judgement.
After the SC fixed the date, both the state and the defence counsels expressed the hope of getting a verdict in their favour.
During hearing of the appeal, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam prayed to the Appellate Division to uphold the verdict delivered by the International Crimes Tribunal-1. He argued that the ICT-1 had rightly sentenced Salauddin to death for his wartime offences after properly examining the documents, evidence and statements of the witnesses.
The defence could not produce any credible evidence in support of their claim that Salauddin was not in Bangladesh during the war and was not involved in the crimes against humanity committed in Raozan of Chittagong, he added.
The attorney general also said several eyewitnesses had given statements before the tribunal-1 confirming Salauddin's involvement in atrocities, genocide and killing of Hindus in different areas of Raozan and sufficient documents and evidence were produced as well.
Salauddin's principal lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain has meanwhile told the SC that the prosecution have miserably “failed” to produce credible and trustworthy evidence and witnesses before the court against his client. Salauddin was liable to be acquitted of all the charges brought against him, he argued.
The tribunal-1 had sentenced Salauddin on the basis of hearsay statements given by the prosecution witnesses and their statements were not credible since they did not corroborate with each other, he claimed.
He also claimed Salauddin was not in Bangladesh during the war, as he left the country for Pakistan on March 29, 1971 for studying at Punjab University and returned home in 1974.
At one stage of hearing, the lawyer requested the apex court to commute the death sentence of Salauddin to life imprisonment considering his arguments and documents and evidence submitted by the defence.
The appeal of Salauddin has meanwhile been enlisted in today's hearing list of the SC for a decision.
Contacted, the attorney general told The Daily Star the matter had been enlisted on the cause list as he wanted to submit a document yesterday about the convict being attacked in Bangladesh in 1971.
“I got the document around 1:00am today and will submit it tomorrow to the Appellate Division,” he added.
Earlier on October 1, 2013, the tribunal-1 found Salauddin, now 66, guilty of nine of the 23 charges brought against him of committing the crimes against humanity.
The tribunal handed him death penalty on each of four charges -- involvement in the killing of Natun Chandra Singha, Awami League leader Mozaffar Ahmed and his son Sheikh Alamgir; and genocide at Sultanpur and Unosattur Para in Raozan.
The tribunal sentenced Salauddin to 20 years in jail for each of three charges -- acts of genocide at Madhya Gohira Hindu Para, and acts of genocide, persecution and deportation at Jagotmallo Para, and the killing of Satish Chandra Palit in Raozan.
He was found guilty and sentenced to five years' imprisonment on each of two charges of abducting, confining and torturing Saleh Uddin, who later became vice-chancellor of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, and Nizamuddin Ahmed, who later became a journalist, at his [Salauddin's] father's Goods Hill Torture Centre in Chittagong.
The BNP leader on October 29, 2013 appealed to the SC against the verdict seeking acquittal of all charges.
Law enforcers arrested Salauddin on December 16, 2010 at Banani in the capital in connection with torching a car in Moghbazar on June 26. He was shown arrested on December 19 following a warrant issued by the tribunal.
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