The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

Four of the convicts of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assassination case, now languishing in the Dhaka Central Jail, will seek President's mercy.

Lt Col Syed Farooq Rahman, Maj Bazlul Huda, Maj (Lancer) AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed and Lt Col (Artillery) Mohiuddin Ahmed expressed their willingness to file the petitions while Lt Col Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan is yet to take any decision in this regard.

Meanwhile, relatives of the Bangabandhu murder convicts visited the condemned men in Dhaka Central Jail yesterday, the first visits allowed since the Supreme Court upheld their death sentences.

Touhidul Islam, Jail superintendent told the repoters "Three of the five death convicts received visits from family members.

He said Hosne Ara Mohiuddin, wife of Mohiuddin Ahmed, two sisters and a niece of Bazlul Huda and Mashhora Khan, wife of Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, their son, daughter and two sisters came to the jail. They met up between 2:15pm and 4:30pm at the condemned cell in line with the jail code, the official said. Islam said relatives of the two other convicts, Syed Faruk Rahman and retired AKM Mohiuddin, have also applied for permission to visit.

"They might come on Monday or Tuesday," he said.

The Supreme Court on Nov 22 rejected the appeals of the five former officers sentenced to death for the murder of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members, sealing the long-drawn case proceedings more than 34 years after the killings.

The long-awaited judgment cleared the way for hanging of all 12 former army officers convicted of the August 1975 assassination, six of whom are fugitives, one of whom has since died.

Lawyers for the jailed convicts have said they will submit a review petition with the Supreme Court. If that fails, their last resort is a mercy petition to the president.

Amnesty International, which seeks a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty, has urged Bangladesh to show clemency to the killers by commuting their death sentences in this high-profile case.