Mojaheed, SQ Chy to walk gallows as President rejects mercy petitions

Dhaka, Nov 21 (UNB) – President Abdul Hamid on Saturday turned down the mercy petitions filed by death-row war crimes convicts Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mojaheed and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, officials said. With the rejection, there remains no legal barrier to the execution of the two war criminals. This is for the first time war crimes convicts sought presidential clemency confessing to their crimes against humanity committed during the country’s War of Liberation in 1971. Earlier, two Jamaat leaders — Abdul Quader Mollah and Mohammad Kamaruzzaman — who were hanged for war crimes did not seek clemency from the President. Earlier in the evening, Law Minister Anisul Haq said his opinion on separate mercy petitions filed by the two convicts was sent to President Abdul Hamid for his consideration. “I can’t tell about my opinion given on the petitions and the content of the petitions filed by them [convicts] until it is settled by the President,” he told reporters. He mentioned that the mercy petitions were filed as per article 49 of the Constitution which allows the President to pardon a convict. In the afternoon, from the Dhaka Central Jail the petitions were first sent to the Home Ministry from where those were sent to the Law Ministry and finally to President Abdul Hamid. The President took the final decision over the petitions in consultation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.