Report on Salauddin Qauder’s family meeting a SC judge before verdict absurd, says AG

The report of an alleged meeting between a Supreme Court judge and family members of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury ahead of the verdict on the war criminal’s appeal against the death penalty is absurd, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam says.

He said the rumour was spread to create confusion. 

The Appellate Division will deliver on July 29 its verdict for the BNP leader charged with wartime terror.

A four-member bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha would deliver it. The other members are Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.

A media report has claimed that Chowdhury’s family members had met one of the judges recently.

Pro-liberation forces in Bangladesh heavily criticised the reported incident.

“No news report should be based on rumours. The chief justice’s office won’t respond to such report,” Alam told reporters on Sunday.

“This is only an attempt to make the judiciary questionable. This is unwanted.”

“I’ve known the Appellate Division judges for 30 years. I know how honest they are and what they are capable of.” 

“Now it’s alleged that a judge has held that meeting (with Chowdhury’s family). This is not believable,” said the top law officer of the state.

Alam added, “The journalist who came up with this report had earlier written a huge column on something the Chief Justice had said. I found that one hilarious.”

He said no one should run reports on cases that are sub-judice.

Alam, however, said action against the newspaper that ran the report was not necessary. “Why should we take action? If we pursue this, the defendants will use it to their advantage.”

The attorney general said the war crimes tribunal had given Chowdhury the capital punishment on four charges. “Of the other five, he could have been given the death penalty on two or at least three more charges.”

“I hope the tribunal’s verdict will be upheld,” he said.

The International Crimes Tribunal-1 on Oct 1, 2013, had convicted the senior BNP leader of genocide and deadly torture of Hindus and Awami League supporters in Chittagong during the 1971 Liberation War.

Mujahid full verdict soon

Alam said he was not informed about the progress in publishing the full death penalty verdict of Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid.

“But I hope we’ll get it very soon. It will possibly be published within two to three weeks,” he added.

The Supreme Court on June 16 had upheld the death sentence of Mujahid, former commander of Al-Badr, scrapping the Jamaat leader’s appeal against the punishment.

The tribunal had ordered him to walk the gallows on July 17, 2013, for the massacre of the intellectuals and involvement in the murder and torture of Hindus during the War of Independence.