Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)-The Supreme Court of Bangladesh on Wednesday upheld the death penalty of condemned war criminal BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury rejecting his plea for reviewing the capital punishment for his crimes against humanity during the country’s Liberation War in 1971.
A four-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha upheld the capital punishment for the BNP leader who had served as the parliamentary affairs adviser of the then prime minister Khaleda Zia during 2001-06.
Salauddin, 66, the infamous war criminal of Raozan upazila in Chittagong, was awarded death sentence on four charges.
The apex court also upheld 20 years’ imprisonment of the BNP leader in two other charges and five years’ for two more charges including killing.
Salauddin was acquitted in one charges involving killing of Satish Chandra Palit, a Hindu inhabitants of Raozan area.
BNP standing committee member Salauddin is the son of Fazlul Quader Chowdhury, chief of convention Muslim League, which actively opposed the Liberation War in 1971.
On October 1, 2013, the International Crimes Tribunal-1 found the BNP leader Salauddin guilty of nine of the 23 charges brought against him for committing crimes against humanity.
The war crimes include genocide abduction, torture and murder of individuals during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh against Pakistan.
The BNP Standing Committee member challenged the verdict on October 29 the same year.
Prosecutors said Salauddin joined Pakistani forces and other auxiliary forces in committing atrocities in Chittagong and took part in large scale killing of unarmed Hindus.
He denied the charges, saying he was not in the country at the time, but the tribunal said evidence proved otherwise.
The special tribunals in Bangladesh have sentenced at least 10 opposition leaders for war crimes since 2010.
Both the BNP and the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami parties denounce the trials as politically motivated attempts to target opposition members.
According to documents, local collaborators and Pakistani occupation forces killed 3 million people, raped 200,000 women and displaced about 10 million to refugee camps in neighbouring India during the Liberation War in Bangladesh.
BBN/AI/ANS