President Maxwell Richards granted a pardon to convicted...

President Maxwell Richards granted a pardon to convicted murderer, Boodram Bedassie, 64, who had spent more than 17 and a half years on death row for a murder he committed in 1972.
Bedassie had been battling numerous chronic diseases including diabetes, congestive heart disorder and tuberculosis. He was also blind.
On 7 June 1988, a warrant was read for his execution for the murder of Mohan Dindal, but then human rights lawyer Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj filed a constitutional motion and the execution was stopped. Bedassie, who spent 28 years in prison, was convicted in 1976, he lost his appeal seven months later and his appeal to the London-based Privy Council was dismissed in 1978.
Bedassie told reporters that in 1990 prison authorities told him that he would be given a release as part of the independence celebrations, but the plan was dashed following the coup attempt by the radical Jamaat al Muslimeen group.
"After that I wrote several letters to the president asking for a pardon but I never got a reply," Bedassie told reporters after his released.