Former ministers Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, facing imminent execution, have not yet taken any call on seeking presidential pardon, the home minister says.
With the legal battles now over, presidential mercy is the only option that can save their neck.
When asked if clemency had been applied for, Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told bdnews24.com: “I haven’t heard anything about it.”
An Appellate Division bench rejected their review petitions to commute their death sentences on Wednesday.
If war criminals Mujahid and Chowdhury decide against seeking presidential clemency or if the head of the state rejects their pleas, the government will execute them.
“We’re ready (to execute the death sentences),” DIG Prisons Golam Haider said.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal (File Photo)
Former Al-Badr militia commander Mujahid was sentenced to death on July 17, 2013 for murdering intellectuals and for the execution of Hindus in 1971.
The Appellate Division upheld the penalty on June 16.
Chowdhury, a minister under military dictator HM Ershad, was given the death penalty on Oct 1, 2013. The apex court upheld the verdict on July 29.
DIG Haider told bdnews24.com that they had read out the verdicts to the convicts on Thursday night.
“They said they would decide later about seeking presidential pardon,” he added, “we’ll ask them about it again tonight.”
Former MP Chowdhury’s brother had scoffed at the idea on Thursday. “What presidential mercy?” Jamaluddin Quader Chowdhury had asked.
The BNP leader’s lawyers have been seeking permission from jail authorities to meet him, but have not been granted access.
The government says no such meeting can take place at this stage.
Chowdhury’s counsel Hujjatul Islam Khan Al Fesani said war criminal Mohammad Kamaruzzaman’s lawyers had been allowed to meet him to discuss presidential clemency before his execution.
Source: bdnews24