The International Crimes Tribunal 1 has found Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury guilty in genocide, murder, persecution and deportation.
Justice Anwarul Haq started reading out from the 172-page verdict at 10:44am. The court will read out a excerpt of the verdict.
Salahuddin Quader was brought to the courtroom at 10am.
This will be the first war crimes verdict for any BNP leader and the seventh since the tribunal was instituted to try war crimes under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973.
The case was kept for CAV (Curia Advisari Vult, a Latin legal term which means the verdict could be delivered at any time) after the proceedings were completed on August 14.
In the case, 41 witnesses testified against Salahuddin Quader, a six-time lawmaker from Chittagong. On July 24, the tribunal stopped the deposition of defence witnesses as the defence repeatedly failed to produce their fifth and last witness.
The accused defended himself as the first defence witness. Earlier, the defence submitted a list of 1,153 witnesses.
Salahuddin Quader claimed that he had been in Pakistan from March 29, 1971, to April 20, 1974, and three other defence witnesses echoed him.
Sensing violence, security measures have been beefed up across the country including Dhaka for the verdict day. In Chittagong, Border Guard Bangladesh personnel have been deployed in five upazilas – Hathazari, Raozan, Rangunia, Sitakunda and Fatikchharhi.
