Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed’s mercy
pleas are now on way to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) before they
reache the president.
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told The Daily Star this afternoon
that the petitions, the last hope for the two top war criminals, reached
his desk around 2:30pm.
He said the petitions, labeled “Appeal for mercy” on top, were being
sent to the Prime Minister’s Office after viewed by Law Minister Anisul
Huq – when The Daily Star called him around 5:00pm.
As part of heightened security measures, authorities have decided to
deploy paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) in Dhaka and
Chittagong from 6:30pm this evening.
Security around Dhaka Central Jail and adjoining areas was
heightened. A large number of law enforcers including police, Rapid
Action Battalion (Rab) and prison guards were deployed.
Meanwhile, family and lawyers of SQ Chowdhury and Mojaheed were still
dubious on whether the mercy petitions were filed at all, after the law
minister’s confirmation earlier today.
READ more: Waiting for mercy plea decisions
Around 5:20pm, Hummam Quader Chowdhury, SQ Chowdhury’s son, told
reporters he was denied to meet his father at Dhaka Central Jail. “We
don’t know yet if he filed mercy petition.”
“We don’t believe that our father filed for mercy,” said Fazlul Quader Fayaz, his other son.
Earlier in the day, two magistrates went to the Dhaka Central Jail to
know whether the two top war criminals – Mojaheed of Jamaat-e-Islami
and Chowdhury of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) – would seek
presidential mercy.
Yesterday, the authorities asked Mojaheed and Salauddin whether they
would seek presidential clemency, the last option for the two convicts
to avoid gallows. Both of them had said they would inform the prisons
officials about their decision later.
A day after delivering verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday
released its full verdicts that dismissed Mojaheed and Chowdhury’s
petitions to review their death sentences originally handed down by two
war crimes tribunals in 2013.
Later, jail officials read out the SC verdicts to the war crimes convicts.
