C .M Kajawl :
Former Al-Badr commander Muhammad Kamaruzzaman, convict of crimes against humanity, should be given ‘reasonable time’ if he wants to file a mercy petition for presidential clemency, Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said on Thursday. “As a death row convict, he will have the opportunity to seek presidential mercy. If he moves the prayer for mercy, the authority will have to wait until the disposal of the process before executing the court’s order,” he said.
Talking to the journalists, Mahbubey said Kamaruzzaman should be given ‘reasonable time’ to submit a mercy petition, explaining that the reasonable time means the time to prepare the application.
Earlier, the lawyers of Kamaruzzaman after meeting him in the Dhaka Central Jail said he was yet to make his decision about placing a mercy petition. Kamaruzzaman, Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat-e-Islami, was sentenced to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.
Kamaruzzaman’s counsel Advocate Shishir Munir said he heard the legal aspects of the Supreme Court’s verdict about his appeal against death sentence when they met him in the prison. “He asked us about the legal provisions regarding his case. He did not give us any decision. He told us that he wanted some more time to think about the court’s verdict and take his decision,” he said.
On April 8, Kamaruzzaman requested the prison authority to allow him one-day time to take the decision after hearing the Supreme Court’s verdict that rejected his appeal against his death penalty.
Acceding to his request, the authority gave him one day time and allowed his lawyers to meet him in the prison on Thursday morning.
According to sources, a Magistrate was to meet him in the prison on Thursday to know his decision, but no one meeting the death row convict till filing this report at 10:00pm, apparently delaying the process.
