Staff Reporter :Law Minister Anisul Huq has said, the seven-day time limit for begging President’s clemency by Jamaat leader Kamaruzzaman has not ended yet.He was speaking to journalists at 12 noon on Saturday, after a seminar in the Supreme Court auditorium.”Kamaruzzaman has seven days to ask for mercy. That ends tomorrow (Sunday). What will happen then?” asked reporters. The Minister replied that they would take action on the verdict that had been published. “Once the accused is informed of the verdict, he is immediately given seven days’ time. This is a constitutional compulsion. He has been given this time to ask for mercy. The seven days are not over as yet,” said the Minister.When his attention was drawn to Article 991 of the Prison Code about informing the accused, he said, “The accused person must be informed of the verdict, but it does not say that this must be done in writing. The fact remains that he has been informed. No order has been issued”.How Kamaruzzaman had been informed? The Law Minister replied, “He has been informed. As far as I know, prison officials told him that his appeal had been dismissed and his death sentence had been upheld”.The Minister in reply to another question, said that he did not know whether the death sentence would go into effect after tomorrow. The Appellate Division last Monday passed its verdict, upholding the death sentence given to Kamaruzzaman by the ICT as an organiser of the notorious collaborator al-Badr force in 1971.
