Condemned Jamaat-e-Islam leader Abdul Quader Mollah. Star file photo
Abdul Quader Mollah has refused to seek presidential clemency, according to jail authorities.
The death row war criminals conveyed his decision when jail officials asked him this afternoon whether he wants to request the president to pardon him.
The Jamaat-e-Islami assistant secretary general was approached after a Supreme Court order dismissing his plea to review his death sentence reached Dhaka Central Jail, where Mollah has been kept.
Twice earlier, he refrained from making any decision when Mollah was offered to seek president’s mercy.
Talking on this after the SC decision today, the attorney general told The Daily Star: “The government has fulfilled its obligation by sending executive magistrate twice to ask him whether he wants to seek presidential mercy.”
Attorney General Mahbubey Alam talks to reporters at Supreme Court premises in the capital after the court today cleared the way for executing war criminal Abdul Quader Mollah, rejecting the Jamaat leader’s petition to review death sentence. Photo: Amran Hossain
But on both occasions, the death row war criminal refrained from saying anything in this regard, he added.
“Still, he can seek mercy now,” the chief law official of the country said, adding that it is up to the government whether to accept it.
The AG statement came shortly after he met with Law Adviser to prime minister Shafique Ahmed, State Minister for Home
Shamsul Haque Tuku, State Minister for Law Kamrul Islam and other high officials of the ministries concerned at the Secretariat.
The emergency meeting was convened immediately after the Supreme Court dismissed Mollah’s petition seeking a review of his death sentence.
Neither Mollah’s family nor his lawyers earlier said the Jamaat leader would seek presidential clemency.
Source: The Daily Star
