President of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Mohamed Fahmy Hassan has returned to office after Supreme Court ruled that parliament’s decision to remove him was unconstitutional.
The CSC confirmed to local media on Sunday (March 17) that Fahmy had returned to work after he had been dismissed by parliament in late November last year.
In November last year, parliament voted 38 – 32 to remove the CSC chair after the Independent Institutions Committee investigated a complaint of sexual harassment lodged by a female employee of the CSC.
On Thursday (March 14), Supreme Court ruled 6-1 that Fahmy would receive two punishments for the same crime if he was convicted at court following his dismissal by parliament (double jeopardy).
Following the judgment, Fahmy would be reinstated and compensated for lost wages since December 2012.
Delivering the judgment, Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Saeed reportedly said that a person should be considered innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law and was entitled to protect his reputation and dignity.
Fahmy was alleged to have to have said to a female CSC employee that “it is not appealing when unmarried girls like you get fat”, whilst touching her on the stomach.
Following Fahmy reinstatement, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali today tweeted: “Majlis n civil servants have lost confidence in Mr. Fahmy, President of CSC. In the national interest, he should resign.”
Supreme Court ruling will encourage sexual harassment: NGO
Maldives-based NGO Voice of Women (VoW) expressed its disappointment with the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the verdict on Fahmy’s dismissal last year.
In a statement published on its website, VoW accused the Supreme Court Justices of having let down the women of the Maldives.
“In a small country like Maldives, where women are terrified to come forward and report cases of sexual abuse, domestic violence or sexual harassment, it took great courage for a girl to step forward and report this case against Mr. Fahmy,” the statement reads.
“By reinstating Mr. Fahmy, after disregarding the Parliamentary no confidence vote, all the women working in Civil Service are in danger of being victims of sexual harassment, as women will be even more reluctant than before to come forward and report such cases.”
VoW raised further concern regarding Fahmy’s seat on the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), claiming that he is in a position to “influence the judiciary”.
“As Parliament had dismissed heads of independent commissions in the past with votes of no-confidence (eg Auditor-General on 28 March 2010) without any prior court case, VoW is extremely concerned that this ruling is highly irregular and departs from previously established norms and procedures,” the VoW statement reads.
“VoW calls upon the Parliament of Maldives to exercise its rights as per article 187 of the constitution and immediately take action to remove Mr. Fahmy (whom the parliament members as representatives of the people, do not have confidence in, and who they believe women employees will not be safe with) from his reinstated position.”
(0)Dislikes
(0)Related Posts
MDP protest against Supreme Court- Elections Commission to respond after Supreme Court issues injunction on dissolution of parties
- Women’s rights group protest against impunity of Civil Service Commission President following sexual harassment allegations
- DRP party congress scheduled for April
- Parliament passes amendments to increase child support payments
- Four arrested in guesthouse raid on charges of prostitution
Ofcourse you shouldnt be the only one who gets caught in the web of lies and male domination promised in the religion.
Its well within your right to harass any girl ,woman or child you wish.
whether the country is small or large, make no difference when it comes to rights of individual ?
VoW statement itself then may be not right since they themselves want to consider as inferior to the women living else where .
Get your act together and then raise your voice and do things like fart ?
As pointed out by MP Nasheed, the whole basis for the Supreme Court ruling is outside the law! The Supreme Court mainly ruled that Parliament investigated a criminal offence.
However, there is nothing in law or the penal code of the Maldives regarding sexual harassment! Hence, Parliament never investigated such a criminal offence. As Parliament has a duty of responsibility for the people it elects, and as Parliament felt that this chap was clearly, sub-par, they have the obligation to dismiss him.
Now, let's take political appointees. If the President dismisses his appointees, they can turn up to the Supreme Court in the same vein as Fahmy, and claim that their "human rights" was violated as well. In short, this case has a lot of room for abuse.
And here I thought it was a good thing this guy got dismissed. I'm disappointed to see him having returned.
member of JSC, hmmm... hes won the case as it shud have been..what women??? who regards them? if anyone did, this guy wud have been punished... this is what our judiciary is..raped.