Category: Crime

Young man dies in attempt to flee from police

A 22-year-old young man died in an accident on Sunday night while attempting to flee from the police.

The young man was driving the motorbike when the police attempted to stop him in a drug operation near Flat 133 in Malé’s suburb Hulhumalé at 9:10pm. The young man sped away at high speed and crashed into a car.

He was thrown from the bike and sustained severe injuries. He died while undergoing treatment at the Hulhumalé hospital.

A 24-year-old man was sitting on the back. He broke an arm and a leg and is receiving further treatment at Malé’s Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital.

The driver of the car did not sustain any injuries.

The police declined to comment on whether any drugs were found on the suspects.

 

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20 inmates released under pilot tagging project

The home ministry has transferred 20 inmates to house arrest and island arrest under a pilot tagging project.

The inmates were released with an electronic tagging device attached to their ankle, which will send out a signal if he or she steps out of a restricted area.

Home ministry media coordinator Thazmeel Abdul Samad told Minivan News today that a local company called Telvert Maldives won the bidding process for the project and will be handling technical issues with the device, while the police, military, the Maldives Correctional Services will be monitoring the inmates.

Thazmeel said tagging would prove effective in preventing convicts released on parole from engaging in criminal behaviour.

“This device is a reminder not to commit crimes again. Inmates will be more hesitant [with the tag],” he said.

The tagging device will sound an alarm if the inmate steps out of the designated area while a receiver in his home will immediately alert the company.

Thazmeel said an official agreement will be signed with the company in the near future to carry out the tagging project.

Home minister Umar Naseer announced last year that inmates will be categorised into four groups based on security risks. The inmates in the least dangerous category will be tagged and released for work and study programmes with the electronic tags.

In addition to undergoing a security screening, Naseer said they will also have to be nearing the end of their sentence.

“They will have to do one or the other [work or study]. If they are working, we have to know where they are going. We also have to know the exact route they are taking. Through the tag, we can track which streets they are walking on,” he said.

The home minister previously said the tags have been tested during his trip to Singapore.

In May last year, Naseer said older inmates or inmates nearing the end of the sentence will be housed in an open jail on a separate island.

Inmates in category two will be allowed to work on the industrial Thilafushi island, and the most dangerous criminals or category one criminals will continue to serve their sentences behind bars in Maafushi prison.

The open jail is to be established on an uninhabited island. The government will provide modest shelter, run a mosque, and establish an administrative office and a security post. The inmates will cook for themselves and be self- sufficient, but will not be allowed to leave the island, Naseer said.

Updates on the open jail project were not available from the ministry at the time of going to press.

The reforms will reduce the prison population from 1,000 inmates to 300 or 400 inmates, the home minister said.

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High Court, citing lateness, rejects murder acquittal appeal

The High Court has rejected an appeal filed by the state over the criminal court’s acquittal of a man accused of killing his girlfriend, stuffing her body into a suitcase, and dumping it at a construction site in Malé.

The appellate court’s registrar rejected the appeal because it was filed after a shortened ten-day appeal period.

The Prosecutor General’s Office has blamed the delay on the criminal court’s failure to provide required court documents on time.

The Supreme Court in January shortened the 90-day appeal period to 10 days by striking down a provision in the Judicature Act.

The PG office says it plans to contest the registrar’s decision.

“We filed the appeal within 10 days of receiving court documents from the criminal court. We hope the High Court will accept this case given its sensitive nature,” said public prosecutor Ahmed Hisham Wajeeh.

The criminal court in May ruled that the state had failed to submit conclusive evidence against Mohamed Najah.

Delivering a verdict five years after the murder trial began, chief judge Abdulla Mohamed said Najah had denied charges and that testimony by the prosecution’s witnesses did not indicate Najah had committed any acts to murder Mariyam Sheereen.

The 30-year-old woman’s body was found hidden under a pile of sandbags in a construction site in January 2010. Najah was accused of taking the suitcase to the vacant building in a taxi.

Police showed CCTV footage of Najah dragging the suitcase and said that the DNA samples from the bag matched Sheereen’s. The driver of the taxi that Najah took also testified at the trial.

The couple were living together in an apartment in Maafannu Kurahage. Witnesses had testified to hearing Najah threaten to kill Sheereen and told the court that she was last seen entering the apartment on the night she went missing.

Prosecutors told the court that Najah had entered and left the apartment several times, locking the door each time, and was later seen leaving with a suitcase.

Judge Abdulla, however, said that the taxi driver had only said he had transported Najah with a heavy suitcase and had said that he had smelled a foul scent only after Najah left the cab.

The three doctors who examined Sheereen’s had not been able to determine the cause of death, he noted.

The chief judge has been accused by the opposition of corruption and bribery. Charges have never been proved. Former President Mohamed Nasheed – who was found guilty of terrorism charges over the military’s detention of judge Abdulla in January 2012 – had said the judge was suspected of involvement in a “contract killing.”

Nasheed’s lawyers say they were unable to file an appeal of his 13-year-jail term because the criminal court had failed to provide court documents on time. The government, however, insists the opposition leader can still appeal.

A High Court official previously told Minivan News that judges can accept late appeals if a reasonable justification is given, such as the lower court’s failure to provide detailed reports.

But Nasheed’s lawyers say there is no legal avenue to file an appeal, because the Supreme Court has removed the High Court’s discretionary powers to accept late appeals in the same ruling that had shortened the 90-day appeal period.

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Warehouse fire in Malé second in a week

A fire broke out in a warehouse in Malé last night in the second fire incident in the capital in less than a week.

The fire at the United Food Supplies warehouse in the Maafanu ward was reported to the Maldives National Defence Force’s (MDNF) fire and rescue services around 8:20pm and was swiftly contained around 8:40pm.

MDNF spokesperson Major Adnan Ahmed told Minivan News that the fire was caused by an ignition in the panel board of a storage container.

The warehouse on Hadhuvaree Hingun mainly stores vegetables, frozen goods and other food items, he said.

Local media reported that staff brought out several boxes from the warehouse to protect the food items after heavy smoke engulfed the area when the fire was extinguished.

The items in storage were not damaged in the fire.

Last night’s incident occurred three days after a fire broke out at the Kaaminee Shopping Centre in the city’s main thoroughfare Majeedhee Magu on Thursday, June 18.

The police and MNDF evacuated nearby shops and apartments, but the fire was also contained in a short period.

A police officer involved in the evacuating the staff was injured and taken to the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital for treatment.

A police media official said both cases were under investigation, but suggested that last night’s fire was most likely caused by faulty equipment.

“Two apartments nearby the fire at Kaaminee center were damaged by the fire, other than that there are not much damages apart from the shopping centre,” he said.

The authorities are yet to conclude an investigation into a massive fire at a Lily Store warehouse in Malé in March.

Photo from social media.

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Manager found guilty of sexual harassment let off with warning

A manager at the state-owned Hulhumalé Development Corporation (HDC) has been found guilty of sexually harassing a female employee, but has been spared with a warning.

The HDC’s human resources manager Mirshan Ahmed was accused of sending inappropriate text messages to an employee who had joined the company in March.

He had suggested she was hired for her looks and told her he would penalize her when she did not respond to his messages.

According to newspaper Haveeru, Mirshan admitted to sending the inappropriate texts at a review committee.

The HDC deputy managing director Mohamed Shahid told Minivan News today that Mirshan has been warned, and said the HDC has decided to renew the female employee’s contract.

Speaking to Minivan News previously, the employee said HDC had declined to renew her contract when she raised the allegations of sexual harassment.

She said she then sent an email to all HDC staff with proof of Mirshan’s inappropriate remarks. The HDC subsequently fired the assistant director of marketing and suspended an IT officer for a “security breach.”

Shahid today said the HDC has reinstated the marketing staff and cancelled the suspension of the IT staff.

According to a law passed in May 2014, government offices must set up internal committees to investigate complaints of workplace harassment within 60 days. The committee is authorized to warn, suspend or dismiss the perpetrator.

The HDC employee who had filed sexual harassment charges told Minivan News that Ahmed regularly commented on her clothes and her hair.

“He once messaged me saying I should thank him for this job. He said he saw my picture on my application form and hired me because I looked so pretty,” she said.

“Maybe because I am a single mother, he once told me that I am a ‘buy-one-get-one free’ deal.”

When she first complained to her colleagues about the harassment, she was advised to stay silent and warned that she may lose her job.

However, she lodged a complaint with the senior management after other female employees shared similar experiences of harassment from Mirshan.

Minivan News was unable to reach the employee for comment at the time of going to press.

Aerial photo of Hulhumalé by Nattu Adnan

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19-year-old man stabbed to death in sixth murder in 2015

A 19-year-old victim of an assault in Addu City last night died this morning while undergoing treatment for injuries.

Local media has identified the deceased as Hussain Shiar from the Atheena house in the Hithadhoo ward. He was stabbed in the back and the head.

A police media official said the assault victim passed away around 10:45am. He was being treated at the intensive care unit of the Hithadhoo regional hospital.

The media official said the hospital had reported the assault to police.

No arrests have been made yet. According to local media, Shiar was attacked by masked men who entered his home around 11:00pm last night.

But the police media official said the assault occurred on the street.

In November last year, masked men forcibly entered a home in the Maradhoo ward of Addu City and assaulted a father and son. The incident followed the arrest of a 23-year-old from Maradhoo on suspicion of attacking a 34-year-old with a machete the previous night.

Shiar’s fatal stabbing meanwhile marks the sixth murder this year.

In late March, the police launched a joint security operation with the army following the the murder of a 29-year-old man in Malé.

Police officers and soldiers began patrolling the streets of the capital, checking vehicles, and stopping and searching individuals in an effort to curb gang violence.

A 23-year-old was stabbed to death outside his home in the Henveiru ward of Malé on February 21, whilst a 29-year-old was killed in Laamu Mundoo on March 20.

Two were Bangladeshis also murdered and four expatriates stabbed in a spike in violence against expatriates in March.

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Major criminal cases stalled over failure to summon witnesses

Prosecution in a major drug bust and a murder case was stalled this month because of the state’s failure to summon witnesses.

The criminal court on Monday cancelled a hearing in the trial of two Maldivians arrested in a 24kg heroin bust after witnesses could not be summoned.

On May 26, the court cancelled hearings into the murder of 25-year-old Ahmed Mirza. Chief judge Abdulla Mohamed said the court had issued three warrants to summon a key witness, but police were unable to do so. The judge said the trial could not proceed without the testimony.

Mirza was assaulted with iron rods in April 2011 and died of severe head injuries. The four suspects arrested in the case have been held in police custody since 2011.

Over 30 people have died in the Maldives in the past seven years from violent crimes and gang-related assaults.

The witness in Mirza’s case was brought to court earlier this month.

Some 18 suspects were meanwhile arrested in the drug haul in February 2014, including 11 Pakistanis, and three Bangladeshis, but the prosecutor general’s (PG) office decided to press charges against only two suspects.

The foreigners were all released by the criminal court or deported.

The police said at the time that the 24kg of heroin was “the largest amount of drugs seized in a police operation conducted in the Maldives so far.” The estimated street value of the drugs was US$6.5 million.

Witness protection

The PG office has blamed the witnesses’ reluctance to testify on the state’s failure to protect witnesses.

“In most cases the witnesses are reluctant to give statements because they are so easily identified. And the state is incapable to provide witness protection,” public prosecutor Hisham Wajeeh said.

Hisham said witnesses could also be identified from their testimony.

“It is especially difficult to hide the witnesses because they can be so easily identified from how they give statements in court. For example, a witness may be identified from the angle he saw the murder,” he said.

But the most troubling issue is when the names of witnesses are leaked, he added.

“We guarantee that witnesses will not be identified from us. But it happens. There has to be people responsible for that and it is a big setback for the system,” Hisham said.

The police meanwhile said witnesses are brought to court in accordance with procedure.

“We cannot comment on any specific issues because it involves witnesses,” a police spokesperson said.

In 2011, the criminal court questioned then-public prosecutor Mahaz Ali, now a drug court judge, over the leak of a confidential testimony statement.

Mahaz told the court he saw the statement in the defence lawyer’s possession, and that the document bore the criminal court’s seal.

The case related to four men accused of possessing dangerous weapons.

Flaws in the criminal justice system have been blamed for the lack of convictions for murder. In most cases, suspects were convicted of murder based on confessions.

In some cases, judges are also changed halfway through the trial.

On June 4, the murder case of 16-year-old Mohamed Arham was transferred from judge Muhthaz Fahmy to judge Abdulla Didi.

Arham was stabbed to death in May 2012. The case had nearly reached completion when the judge was changed.

Judge Didi subsequently released one of the four defendants from police custody.

Arham, a grade nine student at the Dharumavantha School, was found dead in the Lorenzo park in Malé on May 30, 2012. He died of multiple stab wounds to the neck, back, and chest.

The trial began in November 2012.

Judge Didi was among the three-judge panel that sentenced former President Mohamed Nasheed and former defence minister Mohamed Nazim to 13 years and 11 years in jail, respectively, following rushed trials widely criticised over apparent lack of due process.

Earlier this month, the criminal court threatened to throw out the case of a man accused of stabbing an individual after the state failed to appoint a lawyer. He was arrested in November 2013.

Meanwhile, the chief suspect in the murder of Mariyam Sheereen in January 2010 was found not guilty in May.

Almost five years after the murder trial began, chief judge Abdulla Mohamed said in the verdict that the state had failed to submit conclusive evidence.

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Mother confesses to abusing murdered three-year-old baby

A mother accused of murdering her three-year-old boy has confessed to killing the child at the first hearing of her trial today.

Afiya Mohamed Manik told the court that she repeatedly abused her son, Mohamed Ibthihaal, and said she felt anger towards the boy because he was born out of wedlock.

In addition to murder, Afiya was also charged with disobedience to order over child abuse and neglect with reference to the law on protecting children’s rights. She appeared for today’s hearing without legal representation and pleaded guilty to the latter charge, but also confessed to the murder.

Ibthihaal died “by my hands,” Afiya was quoted as saying by local media. She confessed to strangling the child and kicking his chest three times.

Judge Muhthaz Fahmy reportedly stopped Afiya and reminded her that she was to answer the disobedience to order charge. The judge and state prosecutor explained the charge to Afiya.

Afiya said she understood the charge and was confessing to abusing her son voluntarily.

The charge carries a penalty of six months in jail.

Reporters at the hearing observed that Afiya appeared calm, but her voice trembled when she spoke of abusing Ibthihaal on the day of his death. She was handcuffed throughout the hearing.

At today’s hearing, the judge offered Afiya the opportunity to appoint a lawyer at the state’s expense and explained the process of seeking a public defender. He did not announce a date for the next hearing.

If she is found guilty of murder, Afiya faces a sentence of life imprisonment. She had reportedly confessed to murder during the police interrogation and her remand hearings.

Ibthihaal’s body was found with signs of severe abuse on January 28 in the worst case of child abuse in recent years. The horrific murder on the island of Rakeedhoo in Vaavu atoll shocked the nation while reports that the authorities had been aware of Ibthihaal’s abuse sparked public outrage.

Afiya was arrested for murder two days later and has since been held in pre-trial detention.

Afiya’s stepfather, Ismail Raoof, was arrested on April 1 on suspicion of physically and sexually abusing Ibthihaal.

In April, Chief Inspector Abdulla Satheeh said negligence by government authorities and the island community on Vaavu Rakeedhoo was partly responsible for the toddler’s murder.

Satheeh said marks on the child’s neck indicated that he had been strangled.

Police also found swelling on the right side of his forehead, scrapes on his face, wounds on his right ear and scars all over his body. Some of his ribs were broken as well.

Satheeh said Ibthihaal’s death was caused by “major injuries” while some older scars remained unhealed.

“Mohamed Ibthihal had received physical and psychological harm from different individuals on different occasions, for a long period of time,” he said.

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New high court judges raise concern as jailed ex-president alleges executive influence

The promotion of two criminal court judges who presided over the widely criticised sentencing of ex-president Mohamed Nasheed to 13 years in jail has raised concerns of corruption and executive influence over the judiciary.

Judges Abdulla Didi and Sujau Usman were appointed to the High Court on Monday, just ten days after the Supreme Court overturned a High Court ruling, which had noted several flaws in the new regulation on selecting judges to the appellate court.

The High Court took issue with the awarding of points on educational qualification and work experience, and with the final secret vote among Judicial Services Commission members to decide appointees.

Minivan News’ attempts to clarify the educational qualifications of Judges Didi and Usman, or the outcome of the evaluation of candidates were unsuccessful.

The High Court said it had not yet received information of the two judges, while Latheefa Gasim, the only JSC member who responded to calls, said the ten-member commission will have to make a decision on the issue.

Minivan News understands that Didi and Usman hold degrees in Islamic Shari’ah and law, a two-year accelerated degree course established at the College of Islamic Studies specifically for judges without higher education.

Usman, who had previously served as a magistrate judge in Gaaf Alif Villingili had been accused of corruption in 2010 for reportedly pocketing MVR 56,600 ($3670) for travel expenses he had not made. The criminal court in the same year dismissed charges.

President Nasheed’s lawyers in a statement yesterday said Didi and Usman’s transfer is a “blatant attempt to strengthen President Abdulla Yameen’s grip over the judiciary.”

Foreign governments and international bodies, including the UN, have noted the criminal court did not give Nasheed adequate time to prepare a defence, barred him from calling defence witnesses, and at times, denied him legal representation.

The pair’s transfer comes at a time when the government has insisted Nasheed must appeal his 13-year jail sentence at the High Court. But lawyers maintain the government has blocked them from filing an appeal.

Didi, Usman and Judge Abdul Bari Yoosuf also sentenced ex-defence minister Mohamed Nazim to 11 years in jail on weapons smuggling charges. The retired colonel has filed an appeal, the high court has said the pair will not oversee the appeal.

Hassan Fiyaz, a lawyer who contested the JSC regulation to appoint high court judges said: “I am concerned over the regulation as well as the selection of the judges. I believe there are qualified lawyers or judges in Maldives. But there are no chances for them here to work in judiciary.”

Other candidates who had filed for the two vacant positions are: civil court Judge Mariyam Nihayath, who holds a masters in law from a U.S. university; Aishath Rizna, the UNDP’s assistant representative who also holds a masters degree from a U.K university; Hussain Mazeed, who holds a degree from a Malaysian University; and Aishath Sujoon, a former civil court judge who holds a masters degree from an Australian university. Sujoon withdrew her name later.

A prominent lawyer, who wished to remain anonymous, also objected to the JSC drawing up new regulations for new appointments.

“This time they’ve favored people with experience more. They also drew up a new regulation, which for me, raises the possibility the JSC wanted specific people to elected,” they said.

The JSC’s new regulation awarded block 30 points to candidates with ten years of experience as a judge.

Some critics said the criteria does not differentiate between judges who have more experience. Others said the criteria does not do justice to the relatively young, but highly qualified people in the legal sector.

Another lawyer, who represents clients at the high court, said: “We need highly qualified people who can do complex research for cases. We can’t do research in Dhivehi. So a judge, especially a High Court judge should be fluent in at least English or Arabic. I believe Didi and Usman do not have that basic qualification.”

The High Court said the criteria appeared to grade candidates on the title of their degrees. For instance, a candidate who had a combined degree in Islamic Shariah and Law received 25 points, while candidates who had done a degree in law would receive 20 points, even though the latter may have studied the same number of modules in Islamic Shar’ah as the former.

The High Court also noted an individual who had done a degree in common law or Islamic Shariah, and held a masters, would receive 25 points, the same as an individual who had just done a degree in Islamic Shariah and common law.

Photo by Vnews. Published with permission.

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