Mir Quasem won’t seek clemency

Condemned war criminal Mir Quasem Ali will not seek presidential clemency, the last option to avoid the gallows.

The 63-year-old Jamaat-e-Islami leader said he will not seek mercy of the president, Prashanta Kumar Banik, senior jail superintendent, told The Daily Star.

Earlier on Wednesday, a day after the Supreme Court upheld his death penalty for war crimes, he sought time to decide his next course of action. Nine of his family members, including his wife Khandakar Ayesha Khatun, met him in jail that day.

Quasem, widely considered a top financier of Jamaat, said he would not decide what to do next until his son, allegedly picked up by unidentified men 22 days ago, returns home, Ayesha told reporters.

Quasem, widely considered as a top financer of anti-liberation party Jamaat, led ruthless militia Al-Badr in Chittagong to commit crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971.

READ ALSO: Mir Quasem wants more time to decide on seeking clemency

On November 2, 2014, International Crimes Tribunal-2 handed capital punishment to 63-year-old Jamaat leader Quasem over crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War in 1971.

READ ASLO: Mir Quasem’s fate sealed

The Appellate Division upheld the verdict on March 8 this year and released the full text on June 6, hours after which the ICT had issued a death warrant for him.

On June 19, Quasem submitted his petition seeking a review of death.