SQ Chy's wife, son, 5 others charged

Detectives yesterday pressed charges against the wife and son of convicted war criminal Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and five others for allegedly leaking the draft verdict of the International Crimes Tribunal-1 that sentenced him to death.

Tribunal-1 had awarded the capital punishment to the BNP leader on October 1 last year for crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.

Back then, the leaking of the verdict a day ahead of its delivery raised serious questions about the security of the tribunal.

Apart from Salauddin's wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury and son Humam Quader Chowdhury, Salauddin's manager Mahbubul Ahsan, Salauddin's counsel Fakhrul Islam, Fakhrul's assistant Mehedi Hasan, and the tribunal's office assistant Faruk Hossain and janitor Nayan Ali have been accused.

DB Inspector Mohammand Shahjahan, the investigation officer of the case, pressed the charge before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court of Dhaka showing Humam, Farhat and Mehedi as fugitives and sought arrest warrants for them.

The court fixed September 23 to decide on the matter.

On October 1 last year, right after the death sentence was awarded, Salauddin's wife and family members claimed that the “verdict was leaked” and showed a copy of what they claimed was the verdict.

On October 4, detectives filed a case with Shahbagh Police Station against Nayon, Faruk, Fakhrul, Mehedi and several unnamed people under the Information Communication and Technology Act, 2006.

Giving a confessional statement on October 10, Nayan said he began delivering bits of the draft copy in a flash drive to Fakhrul's office at Kakrail on September 15 last year.

He got Tk 500-1,000 every day for the work. Family members of Salauddin took the bits of the draft every day, added Nayan.

He, however, claimed that he was initially unaware of what he was giving away and realised that it was the draft of the judgement on September 25.

The following day when he declined to deliver, Fakhrul and Mehedi threatened him with life if he had told anyone about the matter or tried to back out from his daily deliveries.

Investigation officer Shahjahan, also an inspector of Detective Branch of police, told The Daily Star yesterday that Salauddin's wife and son were charged with “hatching a conspiracy and instigating” the leak while Fakhrul was charged with “facilitating” it.

Mehedi, Mahbubul, Faruk and Nayan were “directly involved” in the crime, he said, adding that he cited 25 people as prosecution witnesses.

As the case was filed under Information Communication and Technology Act, the trial of the case will be held at the Cyber Tribunal in Dhaka and the tribunal will decide on accepting the charge sheet, once it receives the documents after September 23.