Chowdhury

The death sentence on Salahuddin Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi opposition leader, was upheld for crimes against humanity during the war of independence with Pakistan in 1971.

Chowdhury, leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, was, according to News Agency of Nigeria, acquitted of one charge, but the Supreme Court upheld the rest of the convictions.

Bangladesh’s International War Crimes Tribunal sentenced Salahuddin to death in 2013 for murder and genocide in the Port City of Chittagong during the conflict.

His lawyer, Khandaker Hossain, said that the defendant intended to appeal further. “We will file the review petition after getting the copy of the Supreme Court verdict,” Hossain said. The lawyer alleged that the prosecution witnesses gave a false deposition against his client.

The court acquitted him on a charge of inciting Pakistani troops to shoot a suspect, which had earned him a 20-year prison sentence.

Attorney-General Mahbubey Alam said that the public’s expectations had been fulfilled. Seventy-three defendants in 27 cases have been indicted to date, most from Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party.

The tribunal has so far handed down verdicts on 22 defendants, all found guilty of offences, including crimes against humanity, murder and rape.

Seventeen were sentenced to death, four to life in prison and one to 90 years in jail.
Two of them have already been executed, while two died in prison.