The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday released its full verdict upholding death penalty for BNP Standing Committee Member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Jamaat-e-Islami Secretary General Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed.The SC posted the full judgments on its website and also sent the copies to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) clearing the way for starting the process of execution.
The ICT had sentenced both of them to death earlier this year after finding them guilty of crimes against humanity committed during the country's Liberation War in 1971. The SC upheld their death sentences after hearing the appeals.
Salauddin was given the death penalty on four out of nine proven charges on October 1, 2013 for committing crimes against humanity and genocide in Chittagong with an aim to annihilate the Hindu community. He filed the appeal on October 29 the same year.
On the other hand, al-Badr commander Mojaheed filed the appeal on August 12, 2013 seeking acquittal from all the charges. He was sentenced to death by the tribunal on July 17 the same year.
Of the five proven charges out of seven brought against him, Mojaheed was given capital punishment in two - for abetting and facilitating killing of intellectuals during the 1971 Liberation War, and participating in and facilitating the murder of nine Hindu civilians in Faridpur.
As a leader of Islami Chhatra Sangha - Jamaat's then student wing - Mujaheed in 1971 had led a "death squad" named al-Badr.
The ICT-2 on July 17, 2013 found Mojaheed guilty of five out of seven charges brought against him. The tribunal sentenced him to death on three charges, jailed him for life in one and sentenced him to five years in prison on another charge.
The convicted war criminal filed the appeal with the SC on August 12 in the same year seeking acquittal of all the charges. A four-member Appellate Bench headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha upheld the death penalty on June 16 this year.
The three other members of the bench were Justice Nazmun Ara Sultana, Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Hasan Foez Siddique.
The same bench delivered the verdict on Salauddin's appeal against the maximum punishment on July 29.
On October 1, 2013, the ICT-1 found the 65-year-old Salauddin guilty on nine of 23 charges of crimes against humanity and genocide committed during the country's Liberation War in 1971.
With the publishing of these two full verdicts on Wednesday, so far five final verdicts on appeals against the tribunal's judgment have been delivered.
Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Abdul Quader Molla was executed on Dec 12, 2013, after the Appellate Division in its first verdict given on Sept 17 of the same year upheld the death sentence he had challenged.
A year later, the SC in the second verdict reduced Jamaat's number two Delwar Hossain Sayedee's sentence to life in prison. But that verdict's review petition has not been resolved until now as the full verdict is yet to be published.
Another Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat, Mohammad Kamaruzzaman, was hanged on April 11 last year after the apex court delivered its third verdict on Nov.