The full verdicts of the apex court against Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury were read out to them at jail yesterday. But, as of last night, none of them decided whether they would seek presidential clemency, their last lifeline.
The Appellate Division bench, which on Wednesday had dismissed the two review petitions filed against their death sentences, released the full text yesterday evening.
Former BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, who is unpopular for his arrogance, looked calm as he came to know about the top court’s order from his family members.
Salauddin, 66, was upset when his family met him at the Dhaka Central Jail in the afternoon. He listened to them and talked very little, a senior jail official told the Dhaka Tribune seeking anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Fifteen members of Salauddin’s family met him at the jail around 12:30pm and left after an hour. But they did not speak to reporters waiting outside the jail.
Meanwhile, Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid looked normal when 12 members of his family met him at the jail 1:45pm for an hour.
“My father was mentally strong and normal,” Mujahid’s son Ali Ahmed Mabrur told reporters after the meeting. “I am innocent, I am innocent, I am innocent,” Mabrur quoted Mujahid as saying during the family meet.
Mujahid, now 69, reportedly said that it would be a cold-blooded murder if the government executed him.
Asked if Mujahid would seek presidential mercy, Mabrur said that the decision would be made once his father met his lawyers.
Mujahid’s lawyer Gazi MH Tamim said a five-member team of lawyers had requested the jail authorities seeking permission to meet the Jamaat leader this morning to decide the next course of action.
The jail authorities did not respond to the request as of 11:55pm yesterday.
None of the two Jamaat leaders hanged so far in war crimes cases – Abdul Quader Molla in 2013 and Muhammad Kamaruzzaman in 2014 – sought presidential mercy admitting the crimes. Mujahid, who had been a commander of notorious al-Badr in 1971, is the secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Tight security measures were taken in and around the jail with members of Rapid Action Battalion and police patrolling to avert any untoward situation. Moreover, Border Guard Bangladesh members were deployed across the country since Jamaat enforced a daylong shutdown yesterday.
BNP claims SQ Chy deprived of justice
Breaking its long silence over war crimes verdicts, the BNP yesterday alleged that Salauddin had been deprived of justice.
The party claimed that he could get justice if the documents submitted for his defence had been taken into cognisance.
“Salauddin Quader Chowdhury was elected a lawmaker six times. He has contributed in the country’s independence and sovereignty. He is a clean and honest politician; he is committed and uncompromising in the question of democracy,” said Asaduzzaman Ripon, acting spokesperson of the party.
Addressing a press conference at the BNP chairperson’s Gulshan office, Ripon said: “We hoped that he would get justice, but the lawyers said that he did not.”
Ripon also claimed that Salauddin had not committed the crimes as he was abroad during the Liberation War. Salauddin was also denied fundamental rights and human rights, said Ripon.
During the arguments in Salauddin’s case, the chief justice on Wednesday lambasted the defence for submitting fake documents, and that too at the last stage of the legal battle.
In October 2013, Salauddin’s lawyer Khandaker Mahbub Hossain threatened to try every person involved with the war crimes trials once the BNP came to power. Also an adviser to the BNP chief, Mahbub later apologised to the tribunal for his comment.
Next steps before execution
A five-member team of the International Crimes Tribunal led by its Deputy Registrar Md Aftabuzzaman took the copies of the verdicts to the Dhaka Central Jail at 8:42pm.
“The matter of fixing time to execute the death-row convicts now entirely depends on the government,” Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said last night.
“However, the convicts will get a chance to seek presidential mercy admitting their crimes. The convicts themselves have to write that on their own,” he added.
Earlier, judges of the four-member Appellate Division bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha singed the verdicts. Registrar of the Appellate Division received the copy of Salauddin’s judgement around 6pm and Mujahid’s at 6:30pm.
In the full text of Wednesday’s verdict, the bench said that they had not found any deviation of law or clerical mistakes in the Appellate Division judgement. So there is no reason for commuting the sentences of the death-row convicts.
During the arguments, Mujahid’s counsel claimed that he could not be hanged for the crimes committed by al-Badr force. On the other hand, the state argued that Mujahid must shoulder superior command responsibility as the then chief of the paramilitary force, responsible for the abduction and killings of intellectuals in December 1971.
In Salauddin’s case, the lawyers claimed that he had been in Pakistan from March 29, 1971-April 20, 1974, and so the charges brought against him were baseless. But the bench found most of the documents claiming that Salauddin had studied at Punjab University in Lahore were forged.
The six-time lawmaker was awarded death penalty on October 1, 2013 for committing crimes against humanity including genocide and torture of freedom fighters and Hindus in Chittagong’s Raozan area. The Appellate Division upheld his sentence on July 29 this year.
On July 17, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal 2 ordered to hang Mujahid by the neck for the massacre of intellectuals including scientists, academics and journalists, and his involvement in the murder and torture of Hindus in Faridpur during the war.
Mujahid appealed against the tribunal verdict on August 11, 2013 and the hearing began on April 29 this year. On June 16, 2015, the Appellate Division delivered its judgement, upholding death for the Jamaat secretary general.
