SQ Chy wants deposition of 5 Pakistanis

Condemned war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury today moved a petition with the Supreme Court urging it to record statements of eight persons including five Pakistanis during the hearing of his review petition.

A lawyer of the BNP leader Chowdhury submitted the petition at the appeal section of the apex court this morning.

After the SC upheld a special tribunal’s ruling that the BNP leader would have to hang for crimes against humanity during the 1971 War of Independence, Chowdhury urged the court, on October 14, to review the verdict.

Claiming innocence, he sought acquittal on all the nine charges brought against them.

The five Pakistani citizens are: Mohammad Mian Soomroo, former prime minister of the country; Ishak Khan Khakwani, former rail minister; Amber Haroon Saigol, chairman of Dawn Group; Munib Arjamand Khan, a social worker; and Riaz Ahmed Noon, grandson of Viqarunnisa Noon.

The three others are Osman Siddik, former ambassador of USA to Fiji, Shamim Hasnain, a High Court judge of Bangladesh, and his mother Zinnat Ara Begum.

Confirming the names, Chowdhury’s lawyer Md Huzzatul Islam told The Daily Star that the petition would be placed before the SC chamber judge tomorrow for fixing a date for hearing.

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Contacted, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told our correspondent that filing of such petition by Chowdhury at the review state is unprecedented.

He said he would move two petitions before the chamber judge of the Appellate Division tomorrow for fixing a date for early hearing of the review petitions against Chowdhury and Jamaat leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.

 Khandker Mahbub Hossain, principal counsel for Salauddin, told reporters that his client was not in Bangladesh from March 29, 1971 to April 1974 as he went to Pakistan for studying at Panjab University.

The SC upheld the capital punishment of the two convicts in June and July after hearing their appeals against the verdicts of the war crimes tribunal.

The International Crimes Tribunal issued execution warrants for them on October 1, a day after the SC released the full verdicts.