A prominent lawmaker of the Opposition BNP was today sentenced to death by a special Bangladeshi tribunal for genocide during the country's 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, becoming the first MP and seventh person to be convicted for crimes against humanity.
"He (Salauddin Quader Chowdhury) will be hanged by neck till he is dead," Justice ATM Fazle Kabir, chairman of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal, announced in a packed courtroom here.
Chowdhury, 65, the first member of the main opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) to be tried by the court, was found guilty of rape, torture, murder and genocide during the war of independence.
Despite tight security across the country, the verdict sparked violence in Chowdhury's home city of Chittagong and in the capital Dhaka, with protesters torching vehicles. A driver of a van that was set afire sustained burn injuries.
The government had yesterday boosted security in anticipation of violent protests by opposition parties. Paramilitary Border Guards were deployed in Chittagong, while police in riot gear patrolled the streets in the capital and other cities.
BNP called for a dawn-to-dusk strike in the port city of Chittagong tomorrow to protest the verdict.
Earlier, the tribunal said nine of 23 charges against Chowdhury, who was present in the courtroom with family members, were "proved beyond reasonable doubt" and he was awarded capital punishment for four of the charges.
The judges took more than two-and-half hours to deliver the 172-page verdict along with observations.
"The verdict is justified...He was given death penalty on four charges which were heinous genocides," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said, emerging from the courtroom.
Witnesses said Chowdhury called the verdict "a pre- determined judgement" and his relatives joined him in making ridiculing comments against the judges.
Chowdhury is one of two BNP leaders to be tried for 1971 war crimes, but the top leadership of the main opposition party was yet to comment on the verdict, which came 17 months after the high-powered tribunal indicted him on 23 charges of crimes against humanity committed along with Pakistani troops.
The charges included killing directly around 200 people, collaborating with the Pakistan Army to kill and torture unarmed people, looting of valuables and torching of houses and other properties and persecuting people on religious and political grounds.
