Staff Reporter :The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court will deliver its verdict today (Wednesday) on the appeal filed by BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, challenging his death penalty awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 for crimes against humanity during the 1971 war. A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha completed the hearing on Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s appeal and announced the date for the judgment. The bench is set to pronounce the judgment at 9:00 am. The three other judges of the bench are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique. The bench on July 7 completed the hearing of the appeal. It will be the sixth verdict on the part of the apex court on appeal against the ICT verdict in the cases over crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.Both the state and the defense counsel expressed hope of getting the verdict in their favour. Attorney General Mahbubey Alam hoped that the verdict would uphold the death sentence considering the gravity of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s wartime offences. He said that the charges brought against of the BNP leader have been proven beyond reasonable doubt. On the other hand, Advocate Khandker Mahbub Hossain, a lawyer of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, wished that the apex court would acquit his client of the charges, saying that his client was not involved in any crime against humanity during the 1971 war. The BNP leader was not in Bangladesh during the Liberation War, he claimed. Khandker Mahbub, also President of Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), however, alleged that the Gonojagoron Mancha of Shahbagh was creating pressure on the apex court to uphold the death sentence, which is tantamount to contempt of court. He expressed hope saying that the court will take stern actions over the matter. Refuting the allegation, Mahbubey Alam said that the people of Bangladesh including different organisations had been demanding punishment of war criminals for a long time. “There is nothing contemptuous in the Gonojagoron Mancha’s movement demanding for upholding death verdict for SQ Chowdhury”, he said. Leaders and activists of Gonojagoron Mancha have been demanding upholding death verdict of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury. They also gathered at Shahbagh on Tuesday to press home their demand. Security had been tightened in Dhaka and Chittagong centering the verdict of the apex court on Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s appeal. On October 1 in 2013, the ICT-1 issued death penalty against of the-then BNP MP Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for nine of the 23 charges brought against him of his crimes against humanity. The tribunal handed the son of the then Pakistan Convention Muslim League president Fazlul Quader Chowdhury’s death penalty on four charges, 20 years in jail for three charges and five years in jail for two other charges.On October 29 that year, Salauddin Quader Chowdhury submitted appeal against the verdict and sought release from the charges.
