Law minister for stopping president’s clemency to convicted war criminals
Law Minister Anisul Huq today underscored the need for bringing an amendment to the constitution so that the convicted war criminals cannot get president’s clemency in future.
“It is no possible for us to accept in future that a president of Bangladesh pardons a convict of the 1971 crimes against humanity exercising Article 49 of the constitution,” he said.
The minister was speaking to reporters after attending a opening ceremony of a training course of the joint district judges at the capital's Biam auditorium.
Article 49 of the constitution says: “The President shall have power to grant pardons, reprieves and respites and to remit, suspend or commute any sentence passed by any court, tribunal or other authority.”
The law minister told The Daily Star that it cannot be ensured that the convicted war criminals would not get presidential mercy without amending the constitution.
“I will raise the issue before the policymakers of the government and discuss with them how a provision can be included in the constitution prohibiting the president’s mercy for the convicted war criminals,” he said.
Anisul Huq apprehended that a president like former president Abdur Rahman Biswas can pardon the war crimes convicts like Jamaat-e-Islami leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed.
The law minister said the draft amendment to the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) Act might be placed before the cabinet during its November 3 meeting with a new provision to try and punish war criminal organisations for its approval.
The move comes in light of bringing the Jamaat-e-Islami, an organisation the ICT termed guilty of crimes committed against during 1971, to face trial for its role during the Liberation War.
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