The acquittal of Salauddin Quader Chowdhury’s son and wife on charges of leaking the war criminal’s death verdict has set a bad precedence, says the Ganajagaran Mancha.

Hummam Quader Chowdhury and his mother Farhat Quader Chowdhury were let off but five others, including the lawyer for the executed war criminal, were sentenced to prison by a cyber crimes tribunal on Thursday.

“It is an incomplete verdict, because the main culprits have been cleared,” said Mancha spokesperson Imran Sarker.

“The lawyers who were used to leak the (war crimes) tribunal’s verdict did not have personal motives. They were paid to do it.”

The verdict that acquitted the masterminds and financiers of the crime was, therefore, “unwarranted and incomplete”, he said.

“The visible arrogance of Salauddin’s son and wife, owing to their power of wealth, easily shows that they are fully responsible.”

“We have been repeatedly demanding that these war criminals be stripped of their assets … this verdict shows how important this demand is,” said Sarker.

“These families of war criminals are using their massive wealth for their many motives. They used it to leak the tribunal’s verdict and are still continuing to do so.

“The effect of which is evident in this verdict,” Imran said, further commenting that the court has failed to recognise the gravity of this verdict-leak case.

“There was an effort to save the main criminals, by acquittals and handing the others not so severe punishments.”

“This verdict did not fulfil the people’s expectations. I believe it will remain as a bad example.”

Ganajagaran Mancha, a platform demanding maximum penalty to Bangladesh’s war criminals, came into being after a massive outpour of public anger against the International Crimes Tribunal’s “lenient” verdict that sentenced Jamaat-e-Islami’s Abdul Quader Molla to life imprisonment in May 2013.

The countrywide movement led to the amendment of the war crimes law which empowered both the defence and the prosecution with the right to appeal.

Molla, Jamaat’s assistant secretary general, better known as the ‘Butcher of Mirpur’ was executed later that year after the prosecution won the appeal and the Supreme Court rejected his review petition.