SQ CHOWDHURY VERDICT LEAK Wife, son cleared, lawyer gets 10yrs

Fakhrul Islam

A Dhaka court yesterday convicted and handed down different jail terms to five men, including a lawyer and a manager of executed war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, for their involvement in leaking the war crimes tribunal’s draft verdict on Salauddin’s case in 2013.

The Cyber Tribunal, however, acquitted the BNP leader’s wife and son as the prosecution failed to prove their involvement in “hatching conspiracy and instigating” the leak, which raised question over the security of the special tribunal.

Judge KM Shamsul Alam of the Cyber Tribunal said Md Shahjahan, investigation officer of the case, failed to trace the people involved in spreading the leaked draft through the website www.tribunalleak.de and couldn’t find out how they did it.

“It proves that the investigation officer did not probe the matter properly,” the judge said in the verdict.

Of the convicts, Salauddin’s counsel Fakhrul Islam was handed down 10 years’ imprisonment with a fine of Tk 10 lakh. He has to spend six more months in jail for failing to pay the fine.

Salauddin’s manager Mahbubul Ahsan, Fakhrul’s assistant Mehedi Hasan and the then office assistant of the tribunal Faruk Hossain and peon Nayon Ali were awarded seven years’ imprisonment. They were also fined Tk 10,000 each in default of which they will have to suffer six more months in jail.

Of the convicts, Mehedi is on the run while the rest are in jail.

The court acquitted Salauddin’s wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury and son Hummam Quader Chowdhury. Farhat was present at the court yesterday but Hummam was absent.

The whereabouts of Hummam has remained unknown since he was reportedly picked up by unidentified men from a court compound in the city on August 4.

Soon after the pronouncement of the verdict in the war crimes case by the International Crimes Tribunal-1 on October 1, 2013, Salauddin’s wife and family members showed “a copy of the verdict” to newsmen, claiming that it was leaked.

Later, the tribunal authorities said a portion of the draft verdict had been leaked.

Three days later, detectives filed a case with Shahbagh Police Station against Fakhrul, Mehedi, Faruk, Nayon and several unnamed people under the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2006.

On August 28, 2014, the detectives pressed charges against Farhat, Hummam and five others for their alleged involvement in the incident.

According to the charge sheet, Salauddin’s wife and son “hatched conspiracy and instigated” the leak while Fakhrul “facilitated” it. Mehedi, Mahbubul, Faruk and Nayon were “directly involved” in the crime.

On November 22 last year, Salauddin walked the gallows at Dhaka Central Jail for committing crimes against humanity and genocide in 1971.

Following their arrest in October 2013, Faruk and Nayon gave statements before magistrates, confessing their involvement in the incident.

After the closing arguments on August 4 this year, the Cyber Tribunal fixed August 14 for delivering verdict. But the judge deferred the date twice, saying he could not prepare the judgment.

Mohammad Nazrul Islam, public prosecutor involved in the case, said he was not satisfied with the verdict as two accused were acquitted.

“We will decide on filing appeal with the High Court after getting a certified copy of the verdict,” he told The Daily Star.

One of the convicts, Fakhrul, told reporters that he would challenge the verdict before the HC.

WHAT DID DETECTIVES SAY THEN?

At a press briefing on October 4, 2013, Monirul Islam, the then joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said Nayon had confessed his involvement in the leak.

Faruk had asked Nayon to get “some documents” relating to Salauddin’s trial from the tribunal’s computers and give those to Mehedi, said the DMP official, adding that Nayon handed Mehedi a soft copy of the 165-page document in phases, using a pen drive.

At one stage, Nayon refused to comply with their demand. But later, he did it as Mehedi and Faruq threatened to cause him trouble.

Though Nayon was employed as a cleaner, he used to work occasionally as a peon at the office of Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, the then chairman of ICT-1, The Daily Star learnt.

A cleaner’s access to the tribunal’s computers, some employees’ overnight stay inside the court building and bringing electronic devices to the court rooms in defiance of the restrictions — all these had raised questions over the security of the tribunal.

Following the incident, the authorities beefed up security at the tribunal.

Source: The Daily Star