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Shelter centre, not torture cell

Argues defence counsel about SQ Chy's residence

Staff Correspondent
The International Crimes Tribunal is going to decide about framing charges against BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury on February 13.
The three-member tribunal led by its Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq will also hear
Salauddin Quader's application seeking discharge the same day.
The tribunal has permitted two defence counsels to visit Chowdhury in prison on January 28 from 10:00am to 1:00pm.
It also directed the officers-in-charge of several police stations in Chittagong to cooperate with the defence counsels when they visit the locations to prepare their case on February 4.
The order came following submission of four petitions by the defence including permission to visit their client in prison and police protection during their visits to the places of occurrence for preparing defence.
Chowdhury, an MP of main opposition BNP from Chittagong, faces 77 charges of crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971.
He is among two BNP and six Jamaat-e-Islami leaders facing such charges.
The charges, which were presented before the court on January 15, include killing civilians, collaborating with the Pakistani occupation forces to kill and torture unarmed people, looting valuables, acts of arson, persecuting people on religious and political grounds and committing atrocities on the Hindus.
Countering the formal charges, defence counsel AHM Ahsanul Huq Hena yesterday argued that the allegations are false, fabricated and meant to "nail down" his client out of "political vendetta ”.
In his argument, Hena told the court Chowdhury was not a member of any student body or any auxiliary force like the peace committee or Razakar [collaborators] of the Pakistan army.
"How can a 22-year-old boy be a self-styled brigadier?" he said.
Hena argued that "Goods Hill", a family-owned house in Chittagong's
Raozan allegedly used as a torture centre, was actually a "shelter centre" for minorities, elites and businessmen during the War.
Formal charges against the BNP lawmaker state the Goods Hill home was used as a "torture cell" where several people were brutally tortured and killed on April 4 or April 5 in 1971.
Chowdhury and Pakistani occupation forces had earlier abducted them from Adharmanik village in Chittagong, according to the charges.
The counsel went on to say that Chowdhury had left the country in April in 1971.
On the murder of a Natun Chandra Singha, Hena said the Collaborators Act, 1972 has been reinstated through the Fifteenth Amendment of the constitution. Under the law, the murder case is pending with the Supreme Court, he said, adding that a person cannot be charged for the same crime twice.
Since the International Crimes Tribunal Act was enacted in 1973, not a single case was filed against Chowdhury until 2010, the defence counsel said, adding that the undue delay in filing a case raises serious doubts about its merit.
Referring to the fact that 195 Pakistani army officers were repatri-
ated to their homeland after the War, he said they were the main culprits who had committed crimes against humanity.
He said the helpers cannot be tried by releasing the main accused.
In response to the arguments, prosecutor Zead Al Malum later told journalists there is no barrier to trying someone for crimes against humanity committed 40 years ago.
He also said there is no barrier to trying someone under the International Crimes Tribunal Act, 1973 even if he is facing trial under the Collaborators Act, 1972.
The prosecutor on January 15 read out the formal charges against Chowdhury before the tribunal.
The formal charges say Chowdhury was involved in at least 15 acts of genocide and eight murders during the War.
He was also involved in at least 11 acts of torture, nine acts of abduction, 10 acts of confinement, eight acts of persecution, eight acts of bodily harm, seven acts of deportation and a rape, said the prosecutor during the January 15 hearing on charge framing against the lawmaker.
Earlier, the tribunal started its proceedings at 10:40am by delivering an order on a petition of Jamaat leader Motiur Rahman Nizami,
another accused ofwar crimes.
After the order, Chowdhury, who was on the dock, told the tribunal the prison authorities did not allow his family members to meet him.
Without mentioning any names, Chowdhury alleged the jail authorities demanded money from him to allow his family members to meet him.
"I have been living on water and biscuits for the last five days," Chowdhury told the tribunal, adding, "I feel insecure where I am, if needed, tie me in here [tribunal]".
In response, the tribunal told him to go through legal channels to meet his family members and file application about his complaints instead of voicing them.
During the proceedings, the tribunal asked several questions to the prosecution regarding some of the formal charges.
As prosecutor Malum could not answer properly, the tribunal commented that he could not answer any of the questions. To this, Malum said this form of remark would send a "bad message" to journalists who would say the prosecution is "unqualified".
The tribunal replied by saying that there is no room for misunderstanding as everyone in the court is witnessing the court proceedings.