Tofayel Ahmed Joseph, one of the top terrors in the police list of the 1990s, has been “secretly” freed from jail after a Presidential clemency that cut short his life sentence for murder, as per a local daily report.
A Dhaka court on April 25, 2004, sentenced Joseph to death for killing Freedom Party leader Mostafizur Rahman Mostafa in 1996. Joseph’s elder brothers Haris Ahmed and Anis Ahmed were also given life sentence for the murder. Haris and Anis remain absconding. The verdict was upheld by the High Court. On December 9, 2015, the Supreme Court commuted the death sentence of Joseph to life sentence. Joseph was accused in 10 other cases of extortion, and possession of illegal firearms.
The process of Presidential clemency for Joseph started on June 7, 2016 when his mother Renuja Begum applied to the Home Ministry for commuting Joseph’s sentence. Sources said Joseph, a Chhatra League leader of Mohammadpur, had stayed comfortably at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) hospital for “back pain”. It was reported in newspapers that he spent his hospital days gossiping with friends.
Joseph had joined the infamous Subrata Bain’s gang known as Seven Star. He became one of the top criminals of the country. Soon after the general elections in 2001, the BNP-led government announced a list of 23 most wanted criminals and a reward ranging between Tk 50,000 – 100,000 for each of their arrest.
It is one thing to extend clemency to a prisoner who is ill, and another matter entirely if the prisoner has been let free on political grounds. If Joseph was indeed freed because he had served 21 years of his reduced sentence and was a model prisoner who was ill then it’s a good thing and we can hope that more such prisoners who were top terrors would be set free–but if was released entirely on political grounds as he was at one time a member of the ruling party then it is a different matter.
It is a shameful precedent for the President of the country. If he was not free to exercise his power of pardon, it is done at the advice through the Law Ministry. It was a political consideration for helping a party follower.
