No chance of President’s mercy: AG

There is no scope left for war crimes convict Abdul Quader Molla to seek presidential clemency, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam has said.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 12 Dec 2013, 02:58 PM
Updated : 12 Dec 2013, 03:07 PM

His statement came after the Chief Justice-led Appellate Division bench scrapped the Jamaat-e-Islami Assistant Secretary General’s plea for reviewing his death verdict on Thursday.

“We’ve been saying from the beginning that a review cannot be filed [in this case]. The jail code, too, is not applicable,” Mahbubey Alam told reporters emerging from a closed-door meeting at the Secretariat.

The two-and-a-half hour meeting was held at the room of Prime Minister’s law affairs adviser Shafique Ahmed.

State ministers for home and law, along with two deputy attorney generals also joined the meeting.

Mahbubey Alam said the defence had raised the issues of review petitions and the jail code. “The court, however, did not give any observation on the matter.”

“Quader Molla did not take a call on seeking presidential clemency,” the Attorney General said. “There’s no chance now.

“However, it is a different issue if he (Molla) wants [to seek mercy from the President].”

Both Shafique Ahmed and state minister for law Qamrul Islam declined to comment.

The government has made preparations to execute Molla’s death sentence on Tuesday after publication of the full verdict.

Qamrul had said the sentence would be carried out within that night.

However, the Chamber Judge stayed the execution process until 10:30am on Wednesday.

The Chief Justice-led Bench finally scrapped Molla’s review petition after hearing it on Wednesday and Thursday.

Molla was sentenced to life on Feb 5 by the war crimes tribunal. On Sept 17, the Bench raised the punishment to death sentence.