Supreme Court upholding Salauddin Quader Chowdhury  death penalthy

Bangladesh’s top court today upheld death penalty for BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury for crimes against community committed during the Liberation War of 1971.

Death upheld in 4 charges

- 20yrs upheld in 3 charges

- Acquittal for killing Satish Chandra

- 5 yrs upheld for killing 2

- Upholds acquittal in 14 charges

Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha announced the verdict within a short span of time after 9:00am this morning. Grounds of the judgment could not be known since full text was not released.

The appeal verdict is mostly unchanged to that delivered by a war crimes tribunal two years ago except that SQ Chowdhury was acquitted of murdering Satish Chandra Palit – the charge he was given 20 years in prison.

This is the fifth time the Appellate Division of the SC has delivered a verdict on an appeal against a tribunal’s judgment.

The three other judges of the bench are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.

On July 7, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by the chief justice fixed today for delivering the verdict on the appeal after hearing it for 13 days.

On October 1, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 found the BNP leader Salauddin, now 66, guilty of nine of the 23 charges brought against him of committing crimes against humanity.