A Dhaka court yesterday framed charges against executed war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury, their son Hummam Quader Chowdhury and five others in the case filed over the alleged leak of the draft verdict in SQ Chowdhury’s war crimes case.
Judge KM Shamsul Alam of Cyber Tribunal (Dhaka) Bangladesh framed the charges against the seven accused under the Information Communication and Technology Act 2006.
The five other accused are SQ Chowdhury’s counsel Barrister AKM Fakhrul Islam, manager Mahbubul Ahsan, Fakhrul’s assistant Advocate Mehedi Hasan, and International Crimes Tribunal employees Nayan Ali and Faruk Hossain.
Farhat, Hummam, Fakhrul and Mahbub are currently on bail, while Nayan and Faruk in prison. Mehedi is absconding.
The tribunal also set March 28 as the date of testimony for the prosecution witnesses in the case.
Except for Mehedi, all six accused pleaded not guilty and demanded justice after the charges were read out to them during the charge framing hearing yesterday.
Mahbubul was granted bail yesterday after his counsel Md Khairul Islam Liton filed a bail petition with the court on the grounds of health issues, claiming Mahbubul had been suffering from tuberculosis.
The charge sheet had been submitted on August 28, 2014 by Detective Branch Inspector Md Shahjahan, also the investigation officer of the case.
According to the charge sheet, parts of the draft verdict were stolen and later uploaded on several websites abroad to make the war crimes trial controversial.
It also said SQ Chowdhury’s family made a huge investment to leak the draft verdict.
SQ Chowdhury’s wife and son were charged with hatching a conspiracy and instigating the leak, while lawyer Fakhrul was charged with facilitating it. Mehedi, Mahbubul, Faruk and Nayan were directly involved in the crime.
According to the case documents, on October, 1, 2013, right after the death sentence was awarded, Salauddin’s wife and family members claimed that the verdict had been “leaked” and showed a copy of what they claimed was the verdict.
They also alleged that the draft verdict had been retrieved from a computer at the Law Ministry and claimed that it had been written in the ministry.
On October 4, 2013, detectives filed a case with Shahbagh police station against Nayan, Faruk, Fakhrul and Mehedi under the ICT Act.
If found guilty, each of the accused may face the maximum punishment of 14 years in prison, or be charged up to Tk1 crore in fine, or both.