The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Wednesday framed charges against BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury in connection with crimes against humanity during the 1971 Liberation War.
With the charge framing, the war crimes trial against the detained BNP leader who has been charged with 23 counts of crimes began formally. Salauddin is the second person to be indicted for crimes against humanity.
The tribunal — the first of two set up to deal with war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War — framed the charges against Salauddin after accepting prosecutions’ appeal in this regard.
The three-judge panel headed by its Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq ordered the prosecution to present their opening statement on April 29 against Salauddin. It also directed the prosecution to present their witnesses on the day.
Salauddin was produced before the tribunal during the proceedings that was going on around 12:30pm when this report was filed. The BNP leader from Chittagong is among two BNP and six Jamaat-e-Islami leaders who are facing charges of crimes against humanity.
BACKGROUND
On November 17, the ICT took the formal charges into cognisance against Salauddin. On November 14, the prosecution submitted formal charges against Salauddin to the tribunal, citing his involvement in 24 incidents of crime against humanity.
During the submission, they told the court that Salauddin had been directly and indirectly involved in crimes, including genocide, rape and abduction, during the Liberation War in 1971. The probe body concerned on October 3 handed over to the prosecutors a report after it had found Salauddin’s involvement in at least 32 incidents of crimes against humanity.
On December 19 in 2010, he was shown arrested for his alleged crimes against humanity three days after his arrest in connection with another case. On December 16, law enforcers arrested the BNP standing committee member from Banani in connection with torching a car at Moghbazar on June 26. The arson left one person dead.
Source: The Daily Star