Thed Bangladesh Attorney General Thursday said Jamaat-e-Islami leader and war criminal Abdul Qader Mollah can still seek presidential mercy after the Supreme Court rejected his petition to review the death sentence awarded to him.
Mollah, the Jamaat's assistant secretary general, was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity in the 1971 Liberation War.
A five-member bench of the Appellate Division headed by Chief Justice Md. Muzammel Hossain passed the order, clearing the way for the execution.
The ruling means that Mollah can be sent to gallows anytime soon as the death sentence remains valid.
"The government has fulfilled its obligation by sending executive magistrate twice to ask him whether he wants to seek presidential mercy," Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told the Daily Star.
The attorney general added that on both occasions, Mollah refrained from saying anything in this regard.
"Still, he can seek mercy now," he said.
Earlier, after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict, Mollah's chief defence counsel Abdur Razzaq said: "Let us receive the full verdict. He can't be executed until the release of the full verdict. And we have time until Dec 23 for filing mercy petition as per jail code."
Meanwhile, the court order has reached the home ministry and the International Crimes Tribunal, as also the Dhaka Central Jail, where the Islamist leader has been kept.
