President Zillur Rahman has granted mercy to 21 convicts awarded death sentence in different cases in three years from 2009, Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir told parliament yesterday.
Four others sentenced to death in different cases got presidential clemency during the period 1972 to 2008, he said in reply to lawmakers’ queries.
He, however, did not name the presidents who had pardoned these four.
The incumbent president pardoned a convict in death row in 2009, 18 in 2010 and two in 2011, the minister said in a scripted reply to queries.
In 2008, the then president granted clemency to a death row convict and two such convicts in 2005. And in1987, another convict with death penalty got presidential pardon.
It may be mentioned that Article 49 of the constitution says,
“The president shall have power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority.”
In February this year, President Zillur Rahman granted mercy to convicted killer AHM Biplob for the second time in seven months. This time, Biplob’s life imprisonment in each of two murder cases was been reduced to 10-year imprisonment.
In July 2011, Biplob, son of Abu Taher, an Awami League leader and mayor of Laxmipur municipality, was pardoned by the president in advocate Nurul Islam murder case, in which he was given death sentence.
The president also pardoned Biplob’s accomplice Babor, who was also awarded life term in the Kamal murder case. His sentence was reduced by seven years. The two are now serving jail terms in Laxmipur jail.
Biplob had been convicted in absentia in all the three cases. After being on the run for more than 10 years, he surrendered before a court on April 6 last year. His father then filed mercy petitions to the president, following which the latter granted clemency to Biplob in Nurul Islam murder case last year.
In 2009, President Zillur granted mercy to Shahadab Akbar, son of Deputy Leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, who did not surrender before court.
Shahadab was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment and fined Tk 1.6 crore in absentia in four cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Board of Revenue during the last caretaker government rule.
After getting presidential pardon, Shahadab year claimed that he had never been a fugitive, and that he was “hiding intentionally”.
Meanwhile, President Zillur Rahman’s granting of mercy drew sharp criticism from different quarters, including rights groups, legal experts and the media.
Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission Mizanur Rahman reacted sharply to granting of presidential pardon, saying, the nation must come out of this culture.
“A convict in a criminal case should in no way be forgiven,” he said at a programme of the Cox’s Bazar district administration on February 26 this year.
Source: The Daily Star
