Trashing the claims that executed war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mujahid did not file any presidential mercy pleas, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal has said only the application demanded the official procedures to complete the execution.
“The Constitution's Article 49 states the president's authority to deal any mercy plea of convict. SQ Chy and Mujahid sought mercy from the president as per the article and the law ministry sent the appeals to the president via Prime Minister after scrutinising these, and we proceeded with the next course of action as honourable president dismissed their pleas,” said Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal.
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“Thus we have finally executed the verdict. There is no scope to raise question regarding the mercy plea filing. They sought presidential mercy and that was why we had to follow the aforesaid procedures,” said the minister.
He made the remarks in a press conference held in the Secretariat on Sunday.
In reply to a query, he said: “We have received necessary documents of the pleas and there is no scope to show the papers before the family members of both war crimes convicts.”
The home minister termed the applications top secret and denied to show those hard copies to the journalists.
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“We have their (SQ Chy and Mujahid) applications written in paper and there is no scope to create controversy on the issue. We took opinion from the law ministry whether they followed the due process in filing the applications. So further discussion on the matter is baseless,” Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal went on.
About the pressure to implement the execution, he said the PM did not kneel down to any pressure or any illogical request made by some countries, rather she did due matter she considers best for the sake of the countrymen.
The minister said law enforcers were kept on highest alert across the country to prevent any possible destructive move of miscreants.