The lawyers of convicted war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury have failed to get the permission of the jail authorities to meet the BNP leader.
A seven-member team of lawyers went to the Dhaka Jail around 2pm Friday to seek permission to meet the former MP from Chittagong’s Raozan.
Salauddin's lawyer Hujjatul Islam Khan Alfesani told the Dhaka Tribune: “We waited at the jail gate till 6pm to get the permission to visit our client. But, the on-duty officials said no high official was available in the office to issue the permission.”
“We will try tomorrow [Saturday],” added the lawyer. However, the lawyers along with Salauddin's two sons again visited the central jail around 9pm but again failed to get any positive response.
Read more: SC upholds Salauddin's death penalty
Another death row convict Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid's lawyers also failed to meet their client Friday despite they got the permission on Thursday.
Family members meet Salauddin on Thursday, hours before the full text of his review rejection order was read out.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld its previous verdict on BNP leader Salauddin, rejecting his plea for reviewing death penalty for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
Read also: Final verdict read out to Mujahid, SQ Chy
The BNP leader was awarded death penalty by the International Crimes Tribunal on October 1, 2013 for committing crimes against humanity in Chittagong area during the 1971 War of Independence.
The Appellate Division upheld the maximum punishment for the former MP from Chittagong’s Raozan on July 29 this year.
He was arrested on December 16, 2010, and shown arrested in war crimes case on December 19 the same year. The tribunal indicted him on April 4, 2012.
The convict, however, refuted all the charges claiming that he had been in Pakistan from March 29, 1971 to April 20, 1974, and three other defence witnesses echoed him. His counsel reiterated the claim during the appeal hearing.
On the other hand, seven people including Salauddin’s family members, lawyer and manager were sued for their alleged involvement in leaking the draft verdict from the tribunal’s computer.
The Dhaka’s Cyber Tribunal is set to hold the indictment hearing on September 20.
The Apex Court on September 30 released the full verdict and the tribunal on October 1 issued death warrants against him.
Salauddin filed his review plea on October 14.