BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury today appealed against the International Crimes Tribunal verdict sentencing him to death for war crimes.
Supreme Court
A group of lawyers including Joynul Abedin Tuhin submitted the appeal on behalf of Chowdhury with the Supreme Court office seeking the BNP leader’s acquittal from the charges for which he was found guilty.
The appeal contains 1,133-page documents and relevant papers.
The Supreme Court is yet to fix a date for starting the hearing on the appeal.
On October 1, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 found the 64-year-old BNP lawmaker guilty on nine of 23 charges of crimes against humanity and genocide committed during the 1971 Liberation War.
As per International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973, appeals against verdicts can be made in 30 days from the judgement delivery.
Citing from the appeal, Chowdhury’s principal counsel, Khandker Mahbub Hossain, on Sunday told The Daily Star that the death sentence was based on hearsay statements of prosecution witnesses, who themselves had not heard of the offences directly from eyewitnesses, and this is not at all acceptable.
Chowdhury was given capital punishment on four crimes, three of which took place on April 13 and the remaining on April 17 of 1971, said Khandker.
But he was in West Pakistan studying at Punjab University from March 29, 1971 to April 20, 1974 as per a statement submitted during the hearing by the mother of Justice Shamim Hasnain of the High Court, he said.
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said they will place arguments before the SC defending the verdict.
Source: The Daily Star
