Mercy pleas of Bangladesh war criminals rejected, execution imminent

The mercy petitions of death row war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowdhury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed were on Saturday rejected by Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid, clearing the way for their execution.

"The president rejected their mercy petitions," an official source familiar with the process told state-run BSS news agency.

Chowdhury is the leader of main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party while Mojaheed is the secretary general of the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Mojaheed was sentenced to death for the murder of intellectuals and his involvement in the killing and torture of Hindus during the 1971 liberation war.

Chowdhury was sentenced to death for the mass killing and torture of Hindus and Awami League supporters during the same period.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told bdnews24.com that there were no more barriers to executing the war criminals.

Security around Dhaka Central Jail and adjoining areas was heightened and all shops and establishments around the jail area were ordered to shut in the evening, triggering speculation that both the convicts will be hanged soon.

On Saturday evening, the jail authorities asked the family members of the two death row convicts to come and meet them.

"They have called his family members over phone and asked them to meet him in jail," Chowdhury's counsel Mohammad Huzzatul Islam Alfesani told BSS.

Earlier in the day, Chowdhury and Mojaheed had sought presidential clemency.

The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on November 18 rejected prayers seeking to review their death penalties upholding its previous decision.

The Supreme Court orders reached the prison authorities on the same evening through the International Crimes Tribunal, which originally handed them down the death penalties.

The tribunal sentenced Mojaheed to death on July 17, 2013 while Chowdhury was sentenced to death by the tribunal on October 1, 2013.

Since it was established by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government in 2010, the International Crimes Tribunal has sentenced around a dozen people for war crimes.