No clemency: Indian SC rejects Yakub Memon’s mercy plea

NEW DEHLI: Yakub Memon’s chances of avoiding the hangman’s noose dwindled on Wednesday, after India’s Supreme Court threw out his final plea for mercy hours before he was due to be executed.

“The issuance of death warrant is not illegal and thereby we don’t find any merit in the convict’s petition,” a three-judge Supreme Court panel said, dismissing Yakub’s last-minute petition and clearing the last judicial barrier to his execution, due to be held in a jail in Nagpur.

Yakub will go to the gallows by 7am today (Thursday), his 53rd birthday, for his role as the ‘driving spirit’ in the 1993 Mumbai bombings that killed at least 257 people. Last year President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a similar appeal filed by Yakub’s family.

The case has aroused controversy because police considered Yakub’s brother, Tiger Memon, and mafia don Dawood Ibrahim to be the masterminds behind the attacks. Both men remain in hiding.

Yakub’s lawyer urged the court to commute his punishment to life imprisonment, saying he suffers from schizophrenia. He declined to comment after the hearing.

Hours after the Indian apex court rejected Memon’s clemency appeal, the alleged bomb plotter filed another plea, seeking mercy from President Mukherjee. According to media reports, the presidency rejected the last-ditch request by Memon, clearing the way for his execution.

While the public backs Yakub’s execution, several lawmakers and retired judges have come out in his support, saying the sentence is too harsh in light of the help he gave investigators in cracking India’s deadliest bomb attack case.

Yakub surrendered to Indian authorities voluntarily some years after the attacks and aided them in their probe. However, he and his family were slapped with terrorism charges soon after they came out of hiding and were thrown behind bars. Yakub was subsequently sentenced to death along with 11 others in July 2007.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2015.