The International Crimes Tribunal-1 is set to deliver today the verdict in the crimes against humanity case against BNP standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. Also an opposition lawmaker, Salauddin is facing 23 charges including genocide, abduction, confinement, torture, looting and setting fire to houses during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971. Forty-seven days after the completion of the case proceedings, tribunal Chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir yesterday announced the date of the judgment delivery. On August 14, the tribunal kept the case waiting for verdict. After the pronouncement of the date, the prosecution said they had been able to prove 17 of the charges beyond reasonable doubt. “We hope he [Salauddin] will get the capital punishment,” said prosecutor Zead Al Malum. The defence counsel on the other hand claimed that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges and hoped Salauddin would be acquitted. If convicted, Salauddin might have to walk the gallows. Although BNP’s ally Jamaat-e-Islami had observed hartal on previous verdict days, the main opposition BNP could not decide whether to go for similar programme for Salauddin till the last evening. Wising anonymity, several BNP leaders said the party members were not comfortable on the issue and no meeting had been held in the last two or three months in this regard. SQ Chy verdict todayHowever, the party’s standing committee member Moudud Ahmed said BNP would give its reaction after the verdict. The two tribunals dealing with the crimes against humanity cases have so far delivered verdicts in six cases since the establishment of the first tribunal in March 2010 and the second in March 2012. The Tribunal-1 awarded the former Jamaat ameer Ghulam Azam 90 years’ imprisonment and its Nayeb-e-Ameer Delawar Hossain Sayedee the capital punishment. The Tribunal-2 sentenced expelled Jamaat member Abul Kalam Azad and its General Secretary Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed and Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman to death penalty, while its another Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Mollah life term. The Appellate Division of Supreme Court last month extended Quader Mollah’s punishment and awarded him capital punishment. Law enforcers arrested Salauddin on December 16, 2010 at Banani in the capital in connection with torching a car in Moghbazar area on June 26. On December 19, he was shown arrested following a warrant issued by the tribunal. The prosecution pressed 24 specific charges against Salauddin on November 14, 2011. On November 17, 2011 the tribunal took the charges into cognisance. Salauddin was finally indicted on 23 charges on April 4, 2012. According to the formal charges, as a member and leader of Convention Muslim League, a pro-Pakistan political party, and also as an individual, and member of a group of individuals, Salauddin had committed crimes against humanity, genocide and other crimes in different places of Chittagong district during the Liberation War. The prosecution produced 41 witnesses, including an “eyewitness” who claimed to have seen Salauddin shoot and kill Nutan Chandra Sinha, founder of herbal medicine brand Kundeshwari Oushadhalaya, in 1971. The defence was able to bring four witnesses, including Salauddin and his cousin, to prove their client innocent and that he was not in the country during the war. Both the sides placed closing arguments between July 28 and August 14 of this year. The charges against Salauddin say he was involved in killing more than 200 people, including Nutan Chandra Sinha. Nutan was one of among 111 people killed on April 13, 1971 by Salauddin, his accomplices and the Pakistani soldiers. Nutan was killed around 9:30am but the killing that day actually started around 6:00am and went on until 5:00pm in five places. The people killed that day were mostly Hindus of Raojan’s Moddhya Gohira Hindu Para, Jogot Mollo Para, Unsattur Para and Sultanpur village. Many were also injured that day and their houses were looted and torched, read the charges. Pro-liberation people including a large number of Hindus were also forced to leave the country due to the atrocities committed by Salauddin and his accomplices, the charges say.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 03:46:26 +0000