Bangladesh police today arrested a high profile lawyer for allegedly leaking the draft verdict of a war crimes tribunal that sentenced senior BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury to death for his role in the Liberation War of 1971.
"We arrested Barrister A K M Fakhrul Islam from his Segunbacha office this afternoon to face charges of stealing and leaking the draft verdict and sparking a massive controversy," a police spokesman said.
Islam is the lawyer of Chowdhury, who was sentenced to death on October 1 by the International Crimes Tribunal for committing crimes against humanity and genocide during the 1971 war.
Soon after the verdict was announced, Chowdhury's wife Farhat Quader claimed that she had already got a "copy of the judgement".
She claimed that it was retrieved from the computer of the law secretary and was written by the law ministry to be delivered by the tribunal in a pre-dictated manner.
The tribunal later confirmed that an early draft of the verdict was leaked as part of "a big conspiracy" involving a huge amount of money and the government ordered an investigation.
A staff member of the tribunal confessed to his involvement in leaking the 164-page document but alleged that the convict's counsel assigned him to steal the copy.
