Headlines
President urged to reconsider Yakub's mercy plea
New Delhi, July 26
Eminent lawyer Ram
Jethmalani and leaders from four political parties were among around 200
people who on Sunday urged President Pranab Mukherjee to reconsider the
mercy plea of the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon, set to hang
in Nagpur on July 30.
Those who endorsed the petition included
BJP's Shatrughan Sinha, Congress' Mani Shankar Aiyer, CPI-M leader
Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D. Raja, actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Mahesh
Bhat, activist Tushar Gandhi, lawyer Vrinda Grover and economist Jean
Dreze.
The petition asked the president to stay the imminent
execution "so that the substantive and fresh grounds" raised can be
considered on merits.
The submission came a day before the Supreme Court hears a plea by Yakub Memon for a stay on his execution.
"The
president under article 72 of the constitution has the power to grant
pardon and to suspend, remit or commute sentence in certain cases. It is
in this way that the constitution permits right of appeal," the letter
said.
The apex court on July 21 rejected Memon's curative
petition saying it was void of merit. The same day, he filed a mercy
petition before the Maharashtra governor seeking commutation of his
death sentence to life imprisonment.
Evoking international law,
the letter said: "The plea of enforceability of various international
covenant is now no longer a matter of debate but should be considered to
be firmly established as a part of international law which the domestic
courts are duty bound to give effect to."
The petition said the decision to fix the date of execution was illegal.
"Yakub
Memon was not given advance notice of the death warrant hearing and as a
result of which he and his lawyers could not participate and contest
the issuance of the death warrant," it said.
It listed the long
duration of trial and incarceration suffered till date by Yakub Menon,
and said he was mentally unfit to face the gallows.
"Grant of
mercy in this case will send out a message that while this country will
not tolerate acts of terrorism, as a nation we are committed to equal
application of the power of mercy and values of forgiveness, and
justice.
"Bloodletting and human sacrifice will not make this country a safer place; it will, however, degrade us all," it said.