Former High Court Justice Shamim Hasnain and industrialist and former FBCCI president Salman F Rahman were among the four named as defence witnesses for Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, an alleged war criminal.
The defence counsel on Thursday submitted four names as defence witnesses for detained BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
The two others are Quayum Reza Chowdhury, trustee of the Asia-Pacific University and brother of former Chief Justice Mainur Reza Chowdhury, and Nizam Ahmed.
The names of the four defence witnesses were submitted to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) – 1 on Thursday.
Earlier, the defence submitted a petition to review the tribunal’s order issued on June 13 limiting the number of defence witnesses to five.
But the tribunal on Wednesday rejected the petition saying that five witnesses are good enough for the defence.
Salauddin was testifying for himself as the first defence witness.
The tribunal asked the defence to submit another four names in due time. Earlier, they submitted a list of 1153 witness before the tribunal.
Salauddin’s deposition on the sixth day remained incomplete due to his illness. The next date for his deposition is Sunday.
Salahuddin on first day of his testimy said Salman is his first cousin. Salman contested JS polls on Awami League ticket in 2001.
A total of 41 witnesses gave deposition against Salauddin. Deposition of prosecution witnesses began on May 14, 2012.
Salauddin was arrested on December 16, 2010 on charge of his involvement in torching a car on June 26 the same year at Moghbazar causing death of one person. He was shown arrested in connection with the crimes against humanity by the tribunal-1 on December 19.
BNP standing committee member, better known as SQ Chowdhury, is the son of Muslim League leader Fazlul Quader Chowdhury.
He is accused of masterminding the 1971 killing of Nutan Chandra Singha, a reputed philanthropist and industrialist in Chittagong. The prosecution pressed 24 specific charges of crimes against humanity against the accused on November 14, 2011.
On November 17 of the same year the tribunal took 23 charges into cognisance against Salauddin.