The apex court of the country is set to hold hearing today on two review petitions against its judgments that upheld the death penalty of war criminals Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
Yesterday afternoon, on the Supreme Court website, the hearing on Mujahid’s plea is placed second and Salauddin’s plea was at number three in the cause list.
A four-member Appellate Division bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha will hold the hearings. The other members are Justices Nazmun Ara Sultana, Syed Mahmud Hossain and Hasan Foez Siddique.
On November 2, the SC deferred until today the hearing on the petitions after the death row convicts’ lawyers moved the petitions seeking time to make preparations to place arguments.
On October 14, Mujahid and Salauddin sought review of the SC verdict that upheld the capital punishment earlier this year after hearing their appeals challenging the war crimes tribunals’ verdicts.
The International Crimes Tribunal issued execution warrants for them on October 1, a day after the SC released the full verdicts.
In July 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal handed down death sentence to 67-year-old Jamaat leader Muhajid and also jailed him for life and sentenced him to five years in prison in five separate war crimes charges.
The tribunal on October 1, 2013, sentenced 66-year-old Salahuddin to death for the murder of Natun Chandra Sinha, Awami League leader Mozaffar Ahmed and his son; and two acts of genocide in Sultanpur Banikpara and Unasattarpara villages in Raozan of Chittagong in 1971.
The SC also upheld his 20 years’ jail sentence on two other charges: acts of genocide at Maddhya Gohira Hindupara and at Jagotmallopara in Raozan. At least 37 people were killed in these two villages.
On June 16, 2015, the Appellate Division delivered its judgement, upholding death for the Jamaat secretary general. Salauddin’s maximum punishment too was upheld on July 29, 2015.
Security beefed up
Ahead of the hearings, authorities in Chittagong tightened security in the port city and the adjoining 14 upazilas.
Chittagong district police super AKM Hafiz Akhtar told the Dhaka Tribune that policemen have been kept on high alert at Hathazari, Raozan and Fatickchari upazilas, which are known as Salauddin’s strongholds.
In addition, special drives are being conducted in different parts of Chittagong to arrest the troublemakers.
Muhammed Naimul Islam, additional superintendent of Chittagong police’s special branch, said a total of 103 people including Shibir men had been arrested in overnight drives.
With these, the number people arrested in the last few days stands at 985. Of them 69 are leaders and activists of BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami and Chhatra Shibir, arrested in connection with sabotage cases.