DEATH for big town's big devil

He led a band of ruthless killers and teamed up with the Pakistan occupation army to massacre over a hundred unarmed civilians and loot and destroy village after village in Chittagong during the 1971 Liberation War.

The brutality of the self-proclaimed brigadier gained such notoriety that people in their thousands fled the country fearing for their lives and took shelter in India.

He turned his “Goods Hill” house in Chittagong town into a torture centre, and subjected many freedom fighters and pro-liberation people to brutalities.

He also handed over Awami League activists to the Pakistan army to have them killed.

The man, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, never repented for his wartime crimes. He eluded justice and held immense political clout in independent Bangladesh.

But he eventually had to face trial more than four decades after committing the heinous crimes in 1971.

In 2013, a special tribunal awarded him capital punishment for committing crimes against humanity and genocide in 1971. It was the first-ever war crimes verdict against any BNP leader.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the death penalty of the former BNP lawmaker, now 66, paving the way for his execution.

Salauddin, also a former minister, now can seek review of the judgment after the release of its full text. If the review petition is rejected, he will get the chance to seek presidential clemency.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 found Salauddin guilty on nine of the 23 charges brought against him and gave him death penalty on four charges, 20-year jail on three charges and five-year jail on two others.

In its short verdict yesterday, the SC bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha upheld the sentences on eight charges.

It, however, acquitted him of the charge of murdering Satish Chandra Palit for which the ICT-1 had awarded him 20 years' imprisonment.

Salauddin, now in Kashimpur Jail-1 in Gazipur, heard the SC verdict on the radio and also from the jail authorities.

He would seek review of the SC verdict after getting a certified copy of the judgment, said his counsels.

Salauddin's party BNP, which never gave reactions to the verdicts in war crimes cases against leaders of its key ally Jamaat-e-Islami, expressed shock at yesterday's verdict.

The four-member SC bench sat at 9:04am amid tight security in and around the court. The chief justice pronounced the short verdict in the presence of more than a hundred lawyers and journalists.

The three other judges are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.

Salauddin was in prison when the court delivered the verdict. Usually, an accused is not produced before an appeal court.

With the latest one, the SC has so far pronounced verdicts in five war crimes cases.

It upheld the death penalty of three Jamaat leaders and commuted capital punishment of another Jamaat leader to imprisonment until death.

Following the SC judgement, Jamaat leaders Abdul Quader Mollah and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman were executed, while full verdicts in two other cases against Delawar Hossain Sayedee and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed are yet to be released.

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT

The SC upheld Salauddin's death penalty for the brutal killing of Natun Chandra Sinha, AL leader Mozaffar Ahmed and his son; and two acts of genocide in Sultanpur Banikpara and Unasattarpara villages in Raozan where 74 villagers were massacred.

It also upheld his 20 years' jail sentence on two charges: acts of genocide at Maddhya Gohira Hindupara and at Jagotmallopara in Raozan. At least 37 people were killed in the two villages.

The court also affirmed the tribunal's verdict that sentenced him 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.

HE HEARD THE VERDICT

Hearing the verdict, Salauddin said he would fight the final legal battle against his conviction, Jailer of Kashimpur Prison-1 Faridur Rahman Reza told our Gazipur Correspondent, quoting the BNP leader.

"He [Salauddin] is optimistic that his review petition will be granted and he will get justice,” said the jailer.

REACTIONS

Speaking at a press briefing after the verdict, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said, “Our expectations have been fulfilled through the verdict. We would have been upset if the verdict had gone otherwise”.

He said Salauddin could file a review petition with the SC within 15 days from the release of the full verdict.

Usually, a review petition is entertained in case of serious factual mistakes in the verdict or wrongful application of the law in punishing the accused.

The AG also refuted the defence counsel's claim that Salauddin would not have been elected lawmaker several times if he had committed the crimes against humanity.

Mahbubey Alam said getting elected lawmaker couldn't be a ground for proving his innocence.

Giving an example, he said India's Phoolan Devi was an offender but she got elected lawmaker.

Law Minister Anisul Huq told The Daily Star that the government was satisfied with the SC verdict and would execute it upon completion of all legal procedures.

It was proved through the verdict that nobody was above the law, he said.

Salauddin could seek review of the verdict after the SC releases the full judgment. If the apex court dismisses the review petition, the government would execute the convict, said the minister.

In her reaction, ICT Prosecutor Tureen Afroz said, "He [Salauddin] showed audacity in the tribunal time and again, and bragged saying: 'I am a lawmaker'. But today's [yesterday's] verdict proves that a lawmaker also has to face punishment if he turns a lawbreaker."

Meanwhile, defence counsel Khandker Mahbub Hossain told reporters that his client would seek review of the SC verdict after getting the full judgment.      

He said the ICT-1 had handed down punishment to Salauddin upon “false testimony”. And there was no eyewitness against the BNP leader.

Mahbub, also a BNP leader, claimed that Salauddin was studying at Punjab University in Pakistan during the Liberation War.

PENDING CASES

Appeals in eight war crimes cases remain pending with the apex court.

The appellants include Jamaat chief Motiur Rahman Nizami and its leaders Mir Quasem Ali, ATM Azharul Islam and Abdus Subhan, expelled Brahmanbaria AL leader Mobarak Hossain, state minister in HM Ershad regime Syed Mohammad Qaisar and BNP supporter Mahidur Rahman from Chapainawabganj.

The two international crimes tribunals convicted and gave capital punishment to Nizami, Quasem, Azharul, Subhan, Mobarak and Qaisar, and sentenced Mahidur to imprisonment until death for war-time crimes.

The government filed an appeal with the SC, seeking death penalty for former Jatiya Party lawmaker Abdul Jabbar, who is on the run.

On February 24 this year, the ICT-1 sentenced Jabbar to imprisonment until death for committing crimes against humanity in 1971.