M A I N   N E W S

Afzal to file curative plea; hanging not today
Tribune News Service & Agencies

New Delhi, October 19
The Centre is yet to receive the opinion of the Delhi Government on the clemency plea filed by the wife of Mohammad Afzal, convicted in the 2001 Parliament Attack case.

“We are yet to receive the opinion (on clemency petition) of the Delhi Government on the clemency petition and further action will be taken when we receive it,” Home Ministry spokesperson told newspersons here. Till the pendency of the mercy petition, Afzal cannot be hanged, he said.

A Delhi Court had awarded capital punishment to Afzal and ordered the jail authorities to hang him on October 20.

Afzal will file a curative petition before the Supreme Court for a review of the death sentence before he approaches the President for clemency.

“We want to exhaust all legal remedies available to him before approaching the President,” sources close to him said. The petition is likely to be filed after the Divali break.

The curative petition will seek a relook of the apex court’s August 4, 2005, judgement, upholding the death penalty imposed on Afzal by the trial court. He is lodged in the Tihar Central Jail.

After approaching the apex court, he may file a mercy plea before the President seeking commutation of his death sentence.