26 removed from death row

As many as 26 death row convicts have been granted presidential pardon during the tenure of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government, State Minister for Home Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has told Parliament.

The convicts include AHM Biplob, the son of Awami League leader and Lakshmipur Municipality Mayor Abu Taher, in the sensational murder case of Lakshmipur BNP leader Advocate Nurul Islam.

The junior home minister gave the information while replying to a query by opposition Jatiya Party MP Pir Fazlur Rahman during the question-answer session on Wednesday.

He said no-one had been granted clemency in the one and a half months since the present Awami League government assumed office in early January for the second successive term.

Only four death row convicts were granted clemency under the presidential pardon during the eight-year rule of the last BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami coalition government and caretaker government from 2001 to 2008.

The convicts include Mohiuddin Jhintu, President of BNP's Sweden wing, who had been awarded death penalty in absentia by a martial law court in 1982 in a double murder case.

As per the Constitution, only the President can pardon a death row convict. The presidents at the time when the Awami League and the BNP were in power had exercised this power.

The junior home minister said since 2001, the death sentence of 30 convicts had been commuted and other punishments of three others had been minimised.

Since January 2009, the penalties of as many as 29 convicts had been waived. Three among them had been sentenced to varying terms.

The Awami League government faced widespread criticism following Biplob's presidential clemency.

In September 2000, the BNP’s Lakshmipur district unit Organising Secretary Nurul Islam was hacked to pieces before those were dumped into the Meghna. A judicial court had sentenced Biplob to death for the gruesome murder.

A martial law court of HM Ershad had, in 1982, sentenced BNP leader Jhintu to death in absentia in a case concerning the killing of two businessmen at Sutrapur in Dhaka.

Jhintu, who had fled to Sweden after committing the crime, was granted presidential pardon following his return to Bangladesh in 2005.

During the tenure of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance, President Zillur Rahman granted pardon to 20 death row inmates convicted for the murder of the Jubo Dal leader, Sabbir Ahmed Gama. Only one of the condemned men has been denied pardon because he is still on the run.

Gama, nephew of former BNP Deputy Minister Ruhul Quddus Talukdar Dulu, was gunned down at Ramsha Kazipur Bazar of the Naldanga Upazila in Natore district on Feb 7, 2004 when the BNP was in power.

Those sentenced to death by a judicial court were the leaders and activists of the local unit of the Awami League.

The Awami League had claimed that the verdict had been politically prompted.

The convicts granted clemency in the murder case are Anisur Rahman, Mohammad Sentu, Mohammad Foysal, MA Firoz, Faruk Shah, Fazlul Haque Shah, ‘Jahidul’, Shah Jahan Ali, Mohammad Badal, Abdul Jalil, Mohammad Shohagh, SM Fakaruddin, Sajjad Hossain, Jahurul Member, Mohammad Farmajul, Abul Hossain, Ataur Rahman, Mohammad Asad and Mohammad Ohidul.

The others granted mercy in the last 13 years are Chand Mia (Madaripur district), Mohammd Bablu (Rajshahi), Mintu Ghosh (Dhaka), Abdul Khalek (Thakurgaon), Taleb Uddin (Sunamganj), Benzir Ahmed (Jhenaidah), Islam Uddin (Kishoreganj), Rakhal Chandra Saha (Comilla) and Simon Singh (Sylhet).

The sentences of convicts whose jail terms were either waived or minimised are Siraj Mia (Brahmanbarhia), Abdul Mannan (Tangail) and Abdul Jabbar (Lakshmipur).