Dhaka – A Dhaka court on Sunday sentenced a lawyer to 10 years of imprisonment for leaking part of a verdict a special court that dealt war crimes trial more than two years ago, officials said.

The Cyber Crimes Tribunal judge KM Shamsul Alam sentenced lawyer Fakhrul Islam for 10 years in jail and Tk 10 million penalty for leaking a copy of a verdict of the war crimes tribunal that handed down death sentence to Bangladesh Nationalist Party leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury in 2013.

Chowdhury was executed for his involvement in crimes committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of liberation from Pakistan.

The court also sentenced four other people to seven years in jail while acquitted Chowdhury’s wife Farhat Quader Chowdhury and son Hummam Quader Chowdhury of the charges, said prosecution lawyer Nazrul Islam Shamim.

Four of the five convicted including Fakhrul are in jail. Fakhrul’s assistant remain absconding.

The cyber crimes tribunal on August 4 completed hearing in the case after seven people, including wife, a son and a lawyer of the executed war crimes convict indicted after a portion of the draft verdict on Salauddin’s war crimes case was leaked in 2013.

The accused are Salauddin Quader’s wife, his son , his manager Mahbubul Ahsan, lawyer AKM Fakhrul Islam, two staff of the ICT-1 (International Crimes Tribunal)  Nayan Ali and Faruq Hossain and Fakhrul’s associate lawyer Mehedi Hasan.

The court sent Fakhrul, Faruq, Nayan and Mahbubul to prison keeping the trial pending. Farhat earlier obtained bail from the court. Fakhrul’s associate Mehedi Hasan is on the run.

Some parts of the draft of SQ Chowdhury’s verdict were found on the internet several hours before the ICT-1 handed down the judgment.

Later, showing the copy of the draft verdict, Salauddin’s wife and son raised a complaint that the verdict was originated from the Ministry of Law.

Following her claim, a case was lodged with Shahabagh police station under sections 57 and 63 of Information and Communication Technology Act. The investigators indicted seven and the court heard both the defence and prosecution.