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Pardon to any convict at military court okay

Maintains Moudud, refutes his resignation rumour

Staff Correspondent
Rumours ran rife yesterday that Law Minister Moudud Ahmed had resigned for his role in 'manoeuvring' presidential pardon to doublemurder convict Mohiuddin Ahmed Jhintu while Moudud maintained his ministry would recommend pardon for anyone tried by a martial law court.
The speculations were fuelled especially after a reported meeting between the law minister and the prime minister (PM) yesterday.
Dismissing outright the rumours, Moudud told reporters yesterday that he was not at all contemplating resignation. He also denied that he had any meeting with the PM yesterday.
The law minister yesterday yet again defended the presidential
mercy granted to Jhintu, who along with three others were sentenced to death by a martial law court in 1982 for a double-murder in Demra.
"The president's granting pardon to Jhintu as well as the government's role in the process were legal and just. The president pardoned him in line with the constitution," he told the reporters, who went to his office for his reaction to the rumours yesterday.
"If anyone who has been awarded punishment by the martial law court though his name was not in the first information report (FIR) or there were no witness against him, the law ministry will recommend for his pardon if he comes to us," he said.
Describing martial law court as Kangaroo court, Moudud said:
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"Democracy does not recognise military trial as justice. Those who believe in rule of law do not have any respect for the court that provides no room for appealing against its judgement."
Asked why the government does not take steps against the constitutional provision for military court, he said two writ petitions regarding the matter are already pending with the High Court. "To take steps against the provision, we'll have to seek a solution from the Supreme Court."
He said Jhintu's name was not in the FIR and there were no witnesses against him.
"It's not that he was pardoned for his involvement with Jubo Dal. We would have pardoned any citizen, had he or she appealed to us," he said.
On the prompt arrangements made for Jhintu's mercy [10 days into his surrender], Moudud said, "The then president pardoned Abul Kalam Manik, another convict in the same case, 24 hours into his surrender in 1987, five and half years after the judgement."
One hour before he was to end his tenure, US President Gerald Rudolph Ford pardoned a convict sentenced to 75 yearsin prison, he mentioned.
While rumours about the law minister's resignation were going around throughout the day in and outside the Secretariat yesterday, the law minister met the PM at her office.
Reporters who thronged the law ministry found the staff of the ministry too were whispering about the matter. Some of them even queried the journalists whether the rumour was true.
As the pressmen entered the minister's room to know his reactions, Moudud shot down the rumours and also denied having met the PM, saying that he had not gone out of his office once he entered it.
But sources said Moudud met the PM sometime after noon yesterday.