Death sentence of my father was drafted in law ministry: Hummam

Hummam Quader Chowdhury, son of executed BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, has made serious allegations regarding the fairness of his father's war crimes trial, claiming the death verdict was not authored by the tribunal but pre-written in the Law Ministry.

At a press conference held Thursday afternoon (August 14) at the family residence in Dhanmondi, Hummam accused the government of politically motivated persecution. “My father was not given a fair trial. The verdict was prepared in the ministry, not by the judges of the tribunal,” he said.

He further alleged that Sheikh Hasina's government was using tactics such as disappearance, murder, and politically driven executions to eliminate opponents. “My father became a victim of that outrage,” he stated.

According to Hummam, four key witnesses — Munib Arjamand Khan, Amber Harun Saigal, Ishaq Khan Khakwani, and Riaz Ahmed Noon — who were contemporaries of Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury at Punjab University in 1971, were willing to testify in his defense. However, he claimed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs obstructed their entry into Bangladesh.

“These individuals were eyewitnesses who could have testified to my father’s innocence. Despite multiple appeals to both the tribunal and the Supreme Court, they were not granted entry into the country,” he said. “We tried until the last moment to bring them, but we were blocked at every step.”

Hummam announced that a legal notice will be served to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday for allegedly interfering with the judicial process.

He also urged the public to refrain from retaliating against those who testified against his father. “There was an incident in Cox’s Bazar where a witness was attacked. We strongly condemn such actions. They are Bangladeshi citizens and deserve the right to live without fear,” he said.

Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury, a senior BNP leader and former lawmaker, was executed in 2015 following his conviction by the International Crimes Tribunal for war crimes committed during the 1971 Liberation War — a verdict that sparked both international attention and domestic controversy.