The courtroom was not as quiet as it should be on a verdict day as the accused, Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, and members of his family were continuously passing remarks while the judges were reading out the verdict on Tuesday.
Their remarks were heard by journalists, law enforcers, and others present.
Salahuddin Quader was brought in around 10:40am, a minute before the judges entered the courtroom. His wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury, daughter Farzeen Quader Chowdhury and sister Hasina Quader Sinha were seated at the last bench of the defence side, not far from the dock for the accused. His sister Hasina was seen reciting prayers silently before the judges entered.
Salahuddin’s sons Fayyaz and Humam, brother Jamal Uddin, nephew Samir Quader and his wife, and his political follower Zeeba Khan, a BNP activist, were also in the courtroom.
The first comment came from Salahuddin and his wife who almost in unison corrected the tribunal when it mentioned he had been elected MP five times. “Six times, not five,” the couple said out loud.
Salahuddin in a sarcastic tone told the tribunal: “Keep it five times, since you mention it like that in the verdict.” The tribunal immediately stood corrected, saying “six times” while reading out the verdict.
Around 11am, Salahuddin muttered: “What is the point of reading out this verdict. It is on websites. We can download it from there, let’s go home.” His wife Farhat claimed that a few websites had published the verdict beforehand and alleged that the law ministry, not the judges, had prepared the verdict.
The defence lawyers and relatives on Tuesday alleged that the verdict had been published on several websites, including www.bdtomorrow.net/blog, a website run in the name of Justice Concern. They also said the information had been first leaked on http://www.tribunalleaks.be, which is operated from Belgium.
Turning towards journalists, Farhat said: “Let [the verdict] come to an end. I will tell everyone about this.” She was holding printed documents bound like a book. She also called Captain Karim a fictitious character when the tribunal referred to one witness’ deposition that contained the name in connection to the genocide in Madhya Gahira.
After the verdict was delivered, Farhat claimed that she had beencomparing her “advanced copy” of the verdict with the one being read out at the tribunal. “It is same word by word,” she said.
However, she was not seen opening the book even for a single time in the courtroom.
“Two of these judges were not even here when that witness gave the deposition,” Farhat told her sister-in-law Hasina sitting next to her. Both started laughing then.
At one point, Salahuddin said: “In 1995, when I resigned from parliament I was then a patriot. As soon as I joined the BNP, I became a war criminal. These people became judges and I have to listen to this.”
Salahuddin’s follower Zeeba told a journalist: “What rubbish are you listening to? These are available on websites.”
At that moment, a junior defence counsel passed a slip to Salahuddin’s eldest son Fazlul, which stated: “This verdict goes word by word with the leaked one. Humam knows it.”
While the tribunal read out paragraphs about the BNP leader’s involvement in the killing of Nutan Chandra Singha mentioning that Nutan had been popular in his locality, Farhat commented: “Yeah, right. He used to sell alcohol.” Salahuddin added: “40% alcohol, in fact.”
Around 11:20am, another slip from the defence bench reached Fayyaz, which stated: “Tell him [Salahuddin] to oppose the verdict saying it was available on the internet. As lawyers, we cannot do it.”
Fayyaz conveyed the message to Salahuddin.
A few minutes later, when the tribunal mentioned professor emeritus Anisuzzaman’s deposition in connection with the killing of Nutan Chandra, Salahuddin said: “He was there, huh?” He then started unwrapping a candy,which made some noise in the courtroom.
Hasina, Farhat and Zeeba started laughing again as soon as the tribunal said: “The accused ordered the Pakistani soldiers to kill Nutan Singha.”
When the tribunal referred to the book “Bangladesher Swadhinata Juddher Dalilpatra” as evidence, Salahuddin said: “Hmm, the pure Hadith.”
Around 11:50am Salahuddin said out loudly: “No need to read this. It is available on the internet.”The tribunal paused for a few seconds after hearing the remark from the accused.
Salahuddin said: “They [judges] did not call me ‘respected parliamentarian’ why would I address them as ‘my lord’?”
When the tribunal was mentioning the charges that could not be proved, Salahuddin said sarcastically: “Shame, shame!”
The tribunal in its judgement also mentioned that the accused violated the decorum of the courtroom many times and was disrespectful towards the judges during the trial procedure.
Salahuddin was seen yelling at law enforcers and smoking when he was kept at the tribunal lock-up after the verdict.