After the end of arguments, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has fixed July 29 for delivering verdict on an appeal filed by BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, challenging his death penalty awarded for committing genocide and systematic killings during the Liberation War in 1971.
A four-member bench headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha set the date yesterday. Other members of the bench are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
The same bench on June 16 dismissed the appeal petition of the Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and upheld his death penalty. His lawyers will file a review petition.
Supreme Court lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, also an adviser to the BNP chief, placed arguments for the convict while Attorney General Mahbubey Alam opposed the arguments.
Mahbub prayed to the apex court to acquit his client claiming that Salahuddin had not been in Bangladesh during the war. The convict made the same claim during the trial.
On the other hand, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam prayed to the court to uphold the death penalty as the charges brought against Salahuddin had been proven beyond reasonable doubt.
After the hearing, the attorney general said: “We hope that the Supreme Court will uphold the death penalty.”
Mahbub claimed that most of the prosecution witnesses had not been eye witnesses and gave hearsay statements. “We hope the Apex court will acquit him from all the charges as no one can be given death penalty considering faulty witness accounts,” he claimed.
On Monday, another defence lawyer SM Shahjahan placed arguments on the seven charges.
The defence started placing arguments on July 5. Earlier the state concluded their argument part on July 1. The court started holding the hearing on June 16.
The former BNP lawmaker from Raozan, Chittagong ad appealed against the verdict on October 29, 2013. The tribunal on October 1 found him guilty of nine of the 23 charges brought against him.
The tribunal sentenced him to death on four charges – for his involvement in two acts of genocide, the killing of Nutan Chandra Singha, and Awami League leader Mozaffar Ahmed and his son in Raozan of Chittagong.
While pronouncing the verdict, tribunal Chairman Justice ATM Fazle Kabir said: “We are of the unanimous view that the accused deserves the highest punishment as provided under law for committing such gravest crimes that tremble the collective conscience of mankind.”
It also awarded him 20 years in jail for three charges and five years in jail for two other charges. The tribunal’s judgement said that Salahuddin sought to wipe out the Hindus by launching large-scale systematic attacks and killed unarmed civilians, unleashing a reign of terror in the locality. “As a result, millions of people were compelled to leave the country and took refuge in India,” it said.
During his detention at Kashimpur High Security Jail, Salahuddin was sued on sodomy charges in March 2013. After the judgement, his family members, lawyer and manager were sued for their alleged involvement in leaking the draft verdict from the tribunal’s computer.s
