UNB, Dhaka: The appellate division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday upheld the death penalty of condemned war crime convict Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the court, led by chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, delivered the judgment around 9:10am. Three other members of the bench are Justice Nazmul Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmood Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique. The court also exonerated him from the complaint no. 7. Closing the arguments on the appeal, the bench on July 7 fixed July 29 for delivering the judgment. On October 1, 2013, International Crimes Tribunal-1 found the BNP leader guilty of crimes against humanity during the War of Liberation and condemned him to death. On October 29 of the same year, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury filed an appeal with the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court against the ICT verdict. The tribunal indicted Salauddin Quader for his involvement in crimes against humanity on 23 counts under different provisions of the Section 3 (2) of the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973. The tribunal found Salauddin Quader, son of Pakistan Convention Muslim League president Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, guilty of the crimes of genocide at Rauzan and murder of minority Hindu community members, including Nutan Chandra Singh, founder of Sri Kundeshwari Oushadhalaya of Gohira, Awami League leaders and supporters of Bangladesh’s war of independence. The tribunal also found him guilty of torture carried out on captives at his ancestral house ‘Good Hills’ in the port city of Chittagong during the 1971 Liberation War.
