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SQ Chy’s Trial

Defence gets more time for arguments

Staff Correspondent
The International Crimes Tribunal-1 yesterday allowed the defence of war crimes accused Salauddin Quader Chowdhury one more hour to complete their argument by today's morning session.
The defence yesterday placed their arguments for the sixth day, though the tribunal led by Justice ATM Fazle Kabir had earlier fixed four days to that end.
On Monday the tribunal ordered the defence to complete their arguments byFROM PAGE 16 yesterday morning but they failed to comply with the order and sought more time.
The tribunal extended the time till the afternoon session, but the defence failed to complete it again. The tribunal finally gave them one hour today.
Every time the tribunal attempted to close the arguments, SQ Chowdhury himself stood up from the dock and requested for time extension.
At one stage, the war crimes accused told the tribunal that everyone had their limitation. "You [tribunal judges) too have your limitations. But there won't be any harm if you allow one more day," he said.
"I have been in jail for two years and eight months. Can't I demand half a day?" appealed SQ Chowdhury.
When the judges left the courtroom, the war crimes accused addressing his family and friends flippantly said, "You see! I reminded them of their limitations."
It was not the first time that
the tribunal experienced such time extension prayers from the defence During recording of defence testimony, SQ Chowdhury and his counsels repeatedly prayed for time extension and the tribunal entertained the prayers over and over.
Defence counsel Ahsanul Huq Hena during arguments yesterday claimed the pieces of evidence produced by the prosecution were no good at all. "None of the witnesses can be trusted," said the defencecounsel.
Hena added the investigation officer had recorded testimony of 10 witnesses and the prosecution produced six of them to prove the killing of Nutan Chandra Singha, founder of herbal medicine factory Kundeshwari Oushadhalaya, on April 13, 1971.
The defence counsel pointed out "discrepancies" between the testimonies of the witnesses.
He said none of the witnesses except Nutan's son
Prafulla Ranjan Singha mentioned about looting of wealth.
Referring to a case filed in 1972 in connection with Nutan's murder, the defence claimed that it was not mentioned in the FIR that SQ Chowdhury shot Nutan.
Though the defence did not rely upon the rest part of their claimed FIR which says Pakistani army accompanied by SQ Chowdhury raided the Kundeshwari factory, they relied on the part of shooter.
When the tribunal pointed out the matter, the defence counsel said they were pointing it out just to show "discrepancies".
Defence counsel Fakhrul Islam placed argument on SQ Chowdhury's alibi during the Liberation War.
Mentioning testimonies of the defence witnesses and other non-exhibited documents, the defence counsel claimed their client was not present in Bangladesh from March 29, 1971 to April 28, 1974.