The European parliament president had raised the issue of death sentence awarded to Mohd Afzal, guilty in the Parliament attack case 2001, during APJ Abdul Kalam’s visit to European Union and Greece.

Kalam said on this issue that the Indian judicial system and other legal processes would be adhered to in deciding the matter.

Kalam told the reporters on Air India special flight that he clearly told European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering on the clemency for Afzal the matter would be decided on only after legal procedures were completed.

At the same time, he said told reporters that there was no any pressure from the European Parliament on granting clemency to Guru. The European Parliament President raised the issue during a one-to-one meeting.

On which, Kalam replied by saying that the law of the land will be supreme. He told Pottering that any judgment as per the law of the country, that is the final authority, would be processed and carried out.

When reporters asked from him that the constitution gives clemency powers to the President, he replied that when it would come to him, he would take care of that.

Earlier, when Kalam was addressing the European parliament in Strasbourg on April 25, a small group of protestors came outside and was seeking clemency for Afzal.

Kalam said further on 22 other clemency petitions that are pending with the President’s secretariat that those petitions are pending at different stages with different wings of the government.

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