SALAUDDIN’S APPEAL: SC verdict on Jul 29 [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

SALAUDDIN’S APPEAL: SC verdict on Jul 29

Local July 08, 2015

The Appellate Division announced Tuesday that it would on July 29 deliver the verdict in appeal of death row war crimes inmate Salauddin Quader Chowdhury.
A four-judge bench chaired by Chief Justice SK Sinha set the schedule after hearing both the sides.
The bench included Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
On October 1, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 had sentenced Salauddin to death on four war crimes charges and jailed him for varying terms on five other charges.
He was handed prison terms from five to 20 years and was acquitted of 14 charges.
About the charge of killing Natun Chandra Singha, the Chief Justice commented that documentary evidence shows that the victim’s son had filed a criminal case against Salauddin with the Rawjan police station in January 1972 accusing him of killing his father.
The filing of the case proved that Salauddin was in the country during the Liberation War, he said.
If he was not present in the country the case would not have been filed, said the Chief Justice.
Earlier, wrapping up his arguments attorney general Mahbubey Alam submitted that five cases were filed against Salauddin and his father Fazlul Quader Chowdhury for their involvement in 1971 war crimes as the evidence produced by the prosecution show.
Defence lawyers in their arguments termed the cases as politically motivated.
The Chief Justice asked, if the cases were politically motivated, why cases were not filed against Fazlul Quader Chowdhury’s other sons.
About the objections raised by Salauddin’s lawyers about authenticity of the Special Branch’s quarterly report of September 1971 that Salauddin was injured and his driver was killed in a bomb attack on Salauddin’s car in the port city of Chittagong on September 20, 1971, the Chief Justice said that the apex court had no option but to accept the evidence produced by the prosecution as the defence could not challenge the report in the trial court.
The Chief Justice made similar comments about the prosecution presenting as evidence a report published by the then Dainik Pakistan on September 29, 1971 which said that Fazlul Quader Chowdhury’s son and his driver were injured in a bomb attack on September 20, 1971.
Chief defence lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain prayed at least to reduce his client’s sentence saying there was no reason for him to commit the crimes as he was not a known political figure like his father.
Another defence lawyer SM Shajahan sought Salauddin’s acquittal saying that he was not involved in the war crimes as being a student of Punjab University he had left for the then West Pakistan on March 29, 1971 and returned to Bangladesh from London in April 1974.
He submitted that the trial court wrongly sentenced Salauddin to death for the war crimes that took place in Chittagong between April 13, 1971 and early July 1971.
Counsel Shajahan was assisted by his junior Tanvir Ahmed Al-Amin.
Appearing for the state, attorney general Mahbubey Alam submitted that Salauddin could not produce any certificate in support of his claim that he studied in Punjab University during the Liberation War.
He said that the certificates produced by Salauddin show that he studied at Notre Dame College and also that he was a student of political science at Dhaka University.
As one of the judges pointed out that Salauddin submitted his academic certificate issued by the Panjab University, Mahbubey Alam said it was produced to the tribunal through diplomatic chancel.
Salauddin was sentenced to death on four charges, two of them involves genocide.
He was sentenced to death for killing philanthropist and Kundeshwari Oushadhalay founder Natun Chandra Singha at Maddhaya Gohira and for abducting and killing Chittagong Awami League founder Sheikh Mozaffar Ahmed and his son Sheikh Alamgir.