Author: Ahmed Nazeer

Five MPs will join DRP when parliament resumes, claims DRP Deputy Leader

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Deputy Leader and Spokesperson Ahmed ‘Mavota’ Shareef has claimed that “four or five” members of parliament will join the DRP when parliament resumes.

Speaking at a DRP press conference, Shareef said next month there will be a ceremony to celebrate the joining of the new MPs, however he declined to provide further information.

Shareef also told the press that “about 1000” people had expressed interest in joining DRP in the future.

He further claimed that five “hardcore Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) activists” had joined the party.

DRP Parliamentary Group Leader and MP Dr Abdulla Mausoom today told Minivan News that he did not wish to disclose any information on the matter.

‘’Due to the current political environment in the country, MPs and supporters will keep shifting parties for the next three or four months,’’ Dr Mausoom said. ‘’It will go like that until the major political parties elect their presidential candidates.’’

Dr Mausoom predicted that after the major political parties elect their candidates, the shifting of MPs and supporters would settle.

Former MDP MP Abdulla Abdulraheem recently shifted to the DRP.

“I, on March 27, 2012, have decided to rejoin DRP as the principles of MDP contradict the principles I believe in,” he claimed. “I’m quitting MDP and resigning for the DRP as I know the party will always welcome me,” Haveeru quoted him saying during the signing ceremony at the DRP office.

Earlier this month MDP MP for Fuvamulah central constituency Shifaq Mufeed joined former President Maumon Abdul Gayoom’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM).

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Family of Ahusan Basheer approve potential death sentence for two minors accused of murder

The family of 21 year-old Ahusan Basheer, who was stabbed to death on March 17, were yesterday summoned to the Juvenile Court to clarify whether they had any objections to the two minors charged with the murder being given the death sentence if found guilty.

The four family members summoned raised no objections.

A Juvenile Court official today told Minivan News that six hearings had so been held in the murder trial, in which two minors – a boy and a girl – have been accused of the murder.

The official said that the Prosecutor General had so far produced four witnesses to the court in the trial against the two minors.

The Juvenile Court said that Ahusan’s family members had been summoned to clarify whether they had any objections to a death sentence being passed against the minors, were they to be found guilty. They were not currently in Male’, he said.

According to the Maldives Penal Code, a person can be sentenced to death with the consent of all the heirs of the victim, however if even if one objects a death sentence cannot be given.

Police arrested Ibrahim Shahum, 20, as the main suspect in the murder, following his release by the Criminal Court. Shahum had been kept in detention for six months on suspicion of stabbing a 17 year-old to death on July 30, 2010.

Along with Shahum Adam another suspect identified by the police as Hassan Shimaz was also arrested.

No further details were given regarding the female suspect other than that she is being held in custody in connection with Ahusan’s murder.

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Police request court warrant to dismantle MDP protest site at Usgandu

Police have sought a warrant from the Criminal Court to dismantle the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) protest site at ‘Usgandu’, following a request made by the Home Ministry.

In a statement, police said the request was made to the court yesterday afternoon at 1:00pm.

Police said the Home Ministry had requested police implement a decision made by cabinet to reclaim the land from the MDP-dominated Male’ City Council, and give it to the Housing Ministry.

On May 9, the Housing Ministry wrote to Male’ City Council requesting it hand over ‘Usgandu’ to the ministry, however the Council declined to do so, police noted.

The statement said the land was given to Male’ City Council according to laws that placed state land under the jurisdiction of local councils.

MDP Chairperson and MP ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik yesterday claimed that if police dismantled the MDP protest camp at Usgandu, protests would erupt all across Male’.

Moosa said that if their camp was dismantled, MDP supporters would gather near the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) – the same area the then-opposition aligned parties held a series of protests against former President Mohamed Nasheed.

Moosa added that the Uagandu was given by Male’ City Council to MDP according to the law, and that security forces had no right to restrict citizens from claiming a fundamental right such as freedom of assembly.

Following the controversial transfer of power on February 7, Male’ City Council allocated the empty area near the tsunami monument to the MDP, which set up a protest camp.

However on March 19, hours after President Dr Waheed Hassan Manik delivered his inaugural speech to the parliament, security forces raided the area, dismantled the camp and painted over anti-government graffiti, removing all trace of MDP from the area.

Male’ City Council subsequently granted Usgandu to MDP to conduct their political activities until the end of June. The MDP meanwhile filed a case against the dismantling of the tsunami monument site in the Civil Court, which is ongoing.

Police Spokesperson Hassan Haneef today told Minivan News that there were no updates on the story as of yet, adding that he had not been informed whether the court had issued the warrant.

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Adhaalath Party condemns MDP for disrupting Sheikh Ilyas’s sermon

The Adhaalath Party, led by Sheikh Imran Mohamed, has condemned the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) after a group of people said to be MDP supporters obstructed a sermon held by prominent religious scholar Sheikh Ilyas Hussain at Masjid-al-Furqan on Friday night.

In a statement, the party said the Maldives was a 100 percent Islamic nation and that no one should be given the opportunity to obstruct religious views, and called on authorities to give harsh penalties to people involved in such un-Islamic activities.

The Adhaalath Party said that such people were mentioned in the Quran and cited verse 114;1 ‘’And who is more unjust that he who forbids that in places for the worship of Allah, Allah’s named should be celebrated? –whose zeal is (in fact) to ruin them? It was not fitting that such should themselves enter them except in fear. For them there is nothing but disgrace in this world, and in the world to come, an exceeding torment.’’

The party also said that people “who use their brain” should “realise that MDP is a cult that revolves around former President Mohamed Nasheed.”

The Adhaalath Party called on all citizens of the Maldives “to stop supporting these people who do not love the religion or the citizens even a little bit.”

Last Friday a group of people said to be MDP supporters gathered outside Furqan Mosque while Sheikh Ilyas was delivering a sermon inside, and shouted at him saying he was a traitor.

A group of people came out of the mosque and clashed with the group outside, before riot police arrived in the area and restored order.

According to police, five men were arrested following the unrest and brought before court.

The court released three of them and extended the detention period of the other two.

Police Spokesperson Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef today told Minivan News that Male’ City Council on Friday night requested police stop a sermon at the Furqan Mosque, just as it was beginning.

‘’We did not think it was appropriate to stop it because it was a religious thing and not a criminal offence, so we decided to solve it through dialogue,’’ Haneef said. ‘’But when police went to the area people were gathered and there was unrest.’’

He confirmed that two of the five men arrested were still under police charge while the other three had been released.

Sheikh Ilyas is a member of Adhaalath Party’s religious council and has been very critical of former President Mohamed Nasheed.

Adhaalath Party is one of the parties aligned with the current government. Current Islamic Minister Sheikh Mohamed Shaheem Ali Saeed is also a member of the party.

Tonight there is another sermon by Sheikh Ilyas due to be held at the same mosque, on the topic ‘Death’.

MDP Secretary General Ahmed Shah referred Minivan News to MDP  Spokesperson and MP Imtiyaz Fahmy ‘Inthi’, who did not respond at time of press.

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Civil Court orders JSC to submit all documents related to Judge Abdulla’s misconduct

Civil Court Judge Maryiam Nihayath has ordered the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) to submit all documents relating to the ethical misconduct of Chief Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed, in a case filed by the judge last year to halt his further investigation by the judicial watchdog.

At the hearing held today, Judge Nihayath ordered the judicial watchdog to submit by next Thursday all documents and relevant video recordings , local media reported.

Speaking at the court, Judge Abdulla’s lawyer Ibrahim Riza, who is also the MP for Guraidhoo constituency, said that it was not legally appropriate to consider that his client was guilty of misconduct just because the JSC had decided it.

Riza told the court that the JSC’s decision on his client’s misconduct was taken following a statement Judge Abdulla made in an interview with private broadcaster channel ‘DhiTV’. The persons who interviewed Judge Abdulla had told the JSC that they did not know if he had made the comments implying political bias, Riza said.

Judge Maryiam Nihayath said that after the documents were submitted, a further hearing would be held before the verdict was delivered, local media reported.

Abdulla Mohamed filed the suit against the JSC after it completed a report into misconduct allegations against the Chief Judge last year.

According to the report, which the JSC has not yet publicly released, Abdulla Mohamed violated the Judge’s Code of Conduct by making a politically biased statement in an interview with DhiTV.

Following the JSC’s decision to take action against Abdulla Mohamed, he filed a case against the JSC in the Civil Court requesting that it invalidate the JSC’s report, claiming that DhiTV took his statement out of context.

According to the JSC, a total of 11 complaints have been submitted to the commission against Judge Abdulla Mohamed.

In 2005, then Attorney General Dr Hassan Saeed – now advisor to President Mohamed Waheed – forwarded to the President’s Office concerns about the conduct of Abdulla Mohamed.

Among the allegations in Dr Saeed’s letter was one that Judge Abdulla had requested an underage victim of sexual abuse reenact her abuse for the court, in the presence of the perpetrator.

Following Judge Abdulla’s obtaining of a Civil Court injunction late last year blocking his further investigation by the judicial watchdog, the President’s Office accused him of “taking the entire judiciary in his fist”, alleging that he was a threat to national security and ordering  his detention by the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF).

Nasheed’s government listed 14 cases of obstruction of police duty by Judge Abdulla, including withholding warrants for up to four days, ordering police to conduct unlawful investigations, disregarding decisions by higher court, “deliberately” holding up cases involving opposition figures, barring media from corruption trials, maintaining “suspicious ties” with family members of convicts sentenced for dangerous crimes, ordering the release of suspects detained for serious crimes “without a single hearing”, actively undermining cases against drug trafficking suspects, “accepting bribes to release convicts”, “twisting and interpreting laws so they could not be enforced against certain politicians”, deciding that he alone could issue search warrants, arbitrarily suspending court officers, and releasing a murder suspect “in the name of holding ministers accountable”, who went on to kill another victim.

Opposition parties began a series of protests calling for the release of the judge, appealing to groups such as Amnesty International and the International Criminal Court, claiming the judge had been abducted and that Nasheed had violated international treaties.

The High Court and the Supreme Court ordered the release of Judge Abdulla, but the orders were dismissed by the MNDF.

On February 7 Nasheed was ousted from power after a group of police and military allied with opposition demonstrators, assaulting the main MNDF base and storming the state broadcaster while opposition politicians gathered in police headquarters. Nasheed subsequently resigned, later claiming that this was under duress, and the Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest.

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Gaamaadhoo prison bones not Abdulla Anees ‘Aibalhey’, say police

Police have reported that human bones discovered in the site of the former Gaamaadhoo prison on September 19, 2009 do not belong to Abdulla Anees ‘Aibalhey’.

Former President Mohamed Nasheed alleged that the human bones discovered in Gaamaadhoo prison matched the age and estimated period of death of Anees, who disappeared while he was serving a sentence in the prison.

Speaking to the press, Deputy Head of Specialist Command Mohamed Riyaz said that police had concluded the investigation into the case launched under former president Nasheed’s administration, and decided that Anees had not died while in prison. He had last been seen while he was on an island, sentenced to banishment.

Riyaz said the bones were analysed in Thailand and the US, and were found to be aged between 950-1050 years old.

During the investigation police travelled to different islands where Anees had been and met with his close friends, family members, cell mates and women that he had had relations with to gather information, and had  tracked faxes and letters and other documents, Riyaz said.

According to Riyaz, Anees was in jail in early 1980 and was among the inmates that transferred to Gaamaadhoo prison in 1982. In 1983 he was banished to the island ‘Kondey’ in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll.

In December 1983 he was brought back to jail, Riyaz said, and there were records that he had escaped prison several times.

In 1984 he was banished to some islands in the north of the Maldives and on several occasions had tried to flee by stealing a ‘Bokkura’ [small traditional boat]. He was last banished in July 1985 to the island of Dhiyadhoo in Gaafu Alifu Atoll, according to Riyaz.

In 1983 Anees was banished to Fuvamulah, but stole a boat and tried to flee before he was found near the waters of Fiyoari in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll and brought back to hail.

That same year he was arrested again in a bokkura in the Vaadhoo Ocean, as a fugitive on the run who had escaped prison for the second time.

Prison documents show that Anees was in prison in December the same year and had escaped prison that time as well.

In July 1984 Anees was banished to Hoarafushi in Haa Alifu Atoll, and in September that year he stole a boat and fled to Molhadhoo in the same atoll.

The last information about Anees that police could obtain was that he was banished to Dhiyadhoo island in 1985, and on the evening of September 25 of the same year he stole a bokkura and left the island.

Police said the night Anees left was stormy, and that after he left there was no sign of the bokkura, his body or his clothes.

According to police, documents at the Dhiyadhoo island office and former prisons division showed that a search was conducted to find him, but it was unsuccessful.

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Police request EC take action against MDP after “noise complaints”

Police have requested the Elections Commission (EC) take action against the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) after claiming to have received noise complaints following the party’s protest held on Wednesday outside the Supreme Court.

Police said the request was made last Thursday in a bid to “avoid such disturbances in the future”.

According to police statement, MDP protesters gathered in the area on Wednesday at about 2:00pm and were using loudspeakers which disturbed people praying at the mosque, people working at private and government offices in the area, and disrupted the work of the Supreme Court.

Police claimed this was against the political party code of ethics, and requested the Elections Commission take action against the MDP under the Political Parties Act.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Chairperson and MP, Reeko ‘Moosa’ Manik, and MDP Spokesperson and MP Imthiyaz Fahmy, were not responding at time of press.

According to the party, the MDP gathered in front of Bandaara Mosque near the Supreme Court calling for an end to the prosecution of MDP supporters detained on charges of disobedience to order and obstruction of police duty, charges the party claimed were being used to throttle its freedom of assembly.

According to the party, the Prosecutor General (PG) has filed charges against 60 MDP members for obstruction of police duty during the party’s three-month series of protests.

The Criminal Court last Tuesday held hearings against 10 people charged with obstruction of police duty during an MDP rally on March 1.

Speaking to MDP members on Tuesday night, Nasheed said he was “concerned about the arrest and prosecution of protesters exercising their right to freedom of expression and assembly.”

He also condemned the charges against “peaceful” protesters while police and military officers who carried out the “coup” continued to remain free.

Elections Commissioner Fuad Thaufeeq did not respond at time of press.

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Inmates at Maafushi Prison ordered to trim beards to be eligible for parole, claims family member

Inmates in Maafushi Prison have been handed a notice informing them that they must have short hair and trimmed or shaved beards in order to be eligible for parole, a family member of an inmate informed Minivan News.

The source told Minivan News that the notice handed to inmates states that according to Prison Order 12, article 1.5, inmates shall not grow their hair and beard unless for “a medical purpose”, and hair must be trimmed or shaved, or they would not be eligible for parole.

The notice also stated that in a meeting held by the Parole Board on April 11, 2012, the board decided to consider hair as a disciplinary issue when selecting inmates for parole, and that inmates who insisted on long hair or growing their beards would have it recorded as a misdeed in their disciplinary record, according to the source.

The notice was made in compliance with Second Chance Program Office memo number 479/167/2012/113, Minivan News was informed.

When considering parole the board will check for record of misdeeds over the past six months.

Parole Board Chair Dr Ali Shahid Mohamed meanwhile denied that the Parole Board made such a decision.

‘’We are not mandated to determine the regulations and rules of the prison, we only see their disciplinary records and we will see what progress the inmate has made in prison,’’ Shahid said.

Shahid said he does not know what the prison regulations stated about beard and hair.

‘’We did not make any specific decision related to hair or beard in the meeting that day, we enhanced an earlier decision to consider the inmates disciplinary record when releasing inmates on parole,’’ he said.

Parole Board member from Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) Bilal did not respond to calls at time of press.

DPRS Director General Mohamed Rasheed’s mobile phone was switched off.

In November last year a group of prison guards working in Maafushi Prison filed a case at the Maafushi Court after they were ordered to shave off their beards.

Maafushi Court ruled that growing a beard for men in Islam is more than a Sunnah and almost ‘waajib’ (obligatory), and that prison officers should not be asked to shave off their beards.

In March this year the High Court invalidated the ruling saying that Maafushi Court gave no opportunity for the defendant – the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS) – to say anything before the case was concluded, and that therefore the ruling was unlawful.

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Police vehicle collides with MDP supporters on Fuvamulah, injures two

A police vehicle collided with a group of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters while it was en-route to a crime scene on Fuvamulah in Gnaviyani Atoll, where a gang had stabbed one man, injured two others and damaged parked motorcycles.

In a statement, police said the vehicle collided with a motorcycle that had turned into Ghaazee Road.

People in the area when the incident occurred vandalised the police vehicle and assaulted police officers in the vehicle, read the police statement.

Police said two persons injured in the accident, as well as the gang attack victim, were admitted to Fuvamulah Hospital.

However online newspaper ‘Kattelhi’, based in Fuvamulah, reported that the  police vehicle was returning from the crime scene at around 9:30pm when it collided with a motorcyclist, causing the driver to lose control and crash into parked motorcycles. The paper alleged the vehicle was travelling at a very high speed.

Immediately following the crash, people gathered in front of the MDP Fuvamulah Office surrounded the police vehicle, broke the glass, and attacked police officers inside the vehicle, Kattelhi reported.

Kattelhi reported that its reporters witnessed some of the officers being admitted to Fuvamulah Hospital.

The paper identified the injured two persons as Ahmed Hassan, 23 and Ali Saeed, 30 both of them Fuvamulah islanders.

According to Kattelhi one man’s head was badly injured and his body bruised, however according to Fuvamulah Hospital no one was seriously injured.

Minivan News understands that the person who received injuries to his head has been brought to Male’ for treatment.

One man suffered bruises and head injuries in the accident

Kattelhi quoted people in the area as saying that the police vehicle was travelling at an unusually high speed and that there was enough space for it in the middle of the road. MDP supporters were on both sides of road attending a meeting.

The paper identified the gang attack victim as 18 year-old Ahmed Juman, who was stabbed in the head but was not seriously injured.

Supporters of government-aligned parties later gathered near Fuvamulah Hospital and Fuvamulah Police Headquarters, claiming that they believed MDP supporters were coming to attack police, according to Kattelhi. The crowd left after police requested them to leave.

Police Sub-Inspector Hassan Haneef said the police statement was issued based on the information police have received so far and that the investigation into the case was ongoing.

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