The High Court has granted a one-year bail to Barrister Fakhrul Islam, the lawyer of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, in a case filed for leaking the executed war criminal’s tribunal verdict.
The bench of Justice M Enayetur Rahim and Justice Md Amir Hossain passed the order yesterday, Deputy Attorney General AKM Moniruzzaman Kabir told the Dhaka Tribune, adding that they would appeal against the decision.
On the other hand, Fakhrul’s counsel Joynal Abedin said: “There are no other cases against him [Fakhrul], which means he can legally be released.”
Barrister Fakhrul Islam was arrested from his office on November 19, 2013.
The International Crimes Tribunal on October 1, 2013, sentenced SQ Chowdhury to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971. But the night before the verdict, a major portion of the verdict was found available on various online portals.
Two days after the verdict’s leak, on October 2, DB personnel arrested two tribunal employees – Nayan Ali and Mohammad Faruq — who admitted to stealing the verdict’s copy using a USB drive from a personal computer at the tribunal 1 offices and supplying it to Barrister Fakhrul’s apprentice Mehedi Hasan.
On November 5, 2013, DB officials filed a case accusing Nayan, Faruq, and Mehedi by name and also against several unnamed others, and raided the office of Fakhrul and seized various documents related to the verdict’s leak.
On November 22 this year, the government executed notorious war criminal SQ Chowdhury after completing all legal procedures in line with the tribunal verdict.
