Category: News in Brief

Three “seriously injured” in Rathafandhoo Accident

Three people, including a 14 year old boy, have been “seriously injured” in an accident on Gaaf Dhaalu Atoll Rathafandhoo Island today, police have reported.

Two men driving a motorcycle at high speed lost control of their vehicle on Rathafandhoo Island’s main road and slammed into the 14 year old, police said.

The 14 year old suffered grave injuries to his head and is being treated at Thinadhoo Island’s Regional Hospital. The two men are also being treated for injuries.

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MDP Chair’s company ordered to pay MVR1.3million

The Civil Court has ordered Heavy Load Maldives Pvt Ltd to pay MVR1.3million (US$84,41500) for the failed payment of several speedboats, reports local media.

Heavy Load – owned by the family of Maldivian Democratic Party Chairperson ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik – was ordered to reimburse Maldives Finance Leasing Company Pvt Ltd after the court found it had failed to meet the previously agreed payment schedule.

The unpaid amount – for which Moosa was reported to have been guarantor – is to be paid to the court within three months.

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‘CSI turtle’ launches investigation into ghost fishing nets found in the Maldives: The Guardian

“Call it CSI Turtle. In the Maldives, at the heart of the Indian Ocean, scores of turtles are being found with gashed or ripped-off flippers and deep scars in their shells. The cause is clear: the turtles are becoming ensnared in “ghost” fishing nets that have either have been lost or dumped,” reports Damian Carrington for the UK-based Guardian newspaper.

“The turtles that don’t drown are then attacked mercilessly by accomplices. The stumps of the turtles’ flippers show clear signs of being ripped off by sharks, while the shell damage points to a sharp implement: the beaks of birds and the claws of crabs. The nets themselves cut through the turtle’s flesh like cheesewire, leaving deep wounds.

But what the investigation has not yet established are the culprits behind the crime and the motive.

‘It’s OK to keep finding these turtles and keep stitching them up, but it’s just going to keep happening. So we need to try to find out why the nets are being lost,’ says Dr Jill Hudgins, a scientist from the Seamarc consultancy and employed by the Four Seasons resort on Landaa Giraavaru island.

The turtles are the Olive Ridley variety, which live in the open ocean, not the atolls and lagoons of the Maldives, and Maldivian fishermen don’t use nets, pointing the investigation abroad.

Hudgins’ team has now compiled a database of more than 40 net types, detailing the mesh size and the twine diameter, as well as the types of floats attached and other data like the labels on debris trapped in the net such as plastic bottles.

The evidence all points to trawler nets floating in from India and Sri Lanka, and a recent breakthrough was finding a net manufacturer’s label: Garware, an Indian company. Hudgins has now sent images of the nets and severely injured turtles to the company and awaits their reply.

‘We want to scare them a bit,’ she says, and then get their help in finding solutions.”

Read more

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Police to appeal against MC Hameed’s reinstatement

The Maldives Police Service has announced its decision to appeal the Civil Court ruling to reinstate former Chief Superintendent Mohamed ‘MC’ Hameed who was dismissed by the institution’s Disciplinary Committee in August 2012.

A spokesperson told local media that no officers would be reinstated until the appeals process had been exhausted in the country’s apex courts.

The Police Disciplinary Board decided to relieve Hameed and Superintendent Ibrahim Adhnan of duty and to demote Superintendent ‘Lady’ Ibrahim Manik to Chief Inspector of Police, and to remove the disciplinary badge on his uniform.

Newspaper Haveeru at the time claimed that the decision was made by the Disciplinary Board on allegations that the three officers had “worked for the political benefit of a certain party” using their police roles.

The decision to reinstate was based on the precedent set by the ruling on former Civil Service Commission (CSC) Chair Fahmy Hassan, whose dismissal by parliament was recently reversed by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court ruling stated that if Fahmy Hassan was dismissed from the position without being investigated and proven guilty, as per the criminal justice procedure, then his dismissal was to be considered as double jeopardy.

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Supreme Court collects details of Election Commission’s Ballot Progress Reporting System (BPRS)

The Elections Commission (EC) has said that it has submitted the ballot monitoring software, the Ballot Progress Reporting System (BPRS) used by the election officials during the first round of presidential elections to the Supreme Court, with regard to the JP’s election annulment case filed against the commission.

The BPRS System is a web based application that tallied the number of voters who had cast their vote or were in the queue to vote. However, due to difficulties of internet access in some islands, the system was not fully utilized.

During the hearings of the case, JP lawyer and running mate Dr Hassan Saeed told the court that the BPRS system had allowed voters to cast their vote more than once – one of the many arguments it had raised in support of their claim that the entire electoral process was a “systematic failure”.

Chair of Elections Commission Fuwad Thowfeek told local media that the commission had submitted all the documents that had been requested by the apex court.

According to the Elections Chief, the commission had begun to use the BPRS system since the Parliamentary by-elections held last year in the constituencies of Kaashidhoo and Thimarafushi.

He also said that the software was used in all the netbook PCs in polling booths and that it showed the tally of both male and female voters separately.

Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court concluded taking statements from the parties in the case. Officials from the Supreme Court have told local media that the court had been working round the clock to reach a verdict as soon as it can.

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Expatriate stabbed during daytime attack in Male’

A 42 year-old Bangladesh national has been stabbed during an attack in the carnival area of Male’ yesterday afternoon (September 30), police have said.

The foreign national was taken to ADK hospital for treatment to a “long cut” sustained from their left shoulder to their chest, after they were assaulted with a sharp object at approximately 3:55pm yesterday.

Police have said investigations into the case are ongoing.

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Dark clouds gather over the Maldives after election delay: The National (UAE)

“It’s customary to begin articles about the Maldives with phrase such as “It may look like an island paradise, but …” After two years in which the country has experienced a violent coup and attempts to throw the first democratically elected president in jail, maybe it is time we dropped any notion of the Maldives as a utopia,” writes Eric Randolph for the UAE newspaper The National.

“In recent days, the country’s elite have once again displayed their cynical disregard for democracy, with the Supreme Court indefinitely postponing the second round of the presidential election.

The official reason for that postponement is that the court is investigating claims of election irregularities in the first round made by one of the losing candidates, even though the vote was given a clean bill of health by international observers.

One doesn’t have to dig too deep to find signs that the real reason for the delay is that powerful business and political interests want to keep Mohamed Nasheed from assuming the presidency.”

Read more.

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Suspension of democracy an assault on the Maldives’ fragile democracy: The Diplomat

The future of democracy on the archipelago looks bleak after a constitutionally questionable court intervention, writes Sudha Ramachandran for The Diplomat.

Late last week, the Maldives Supreme Court announced that the run-off vote should be postponed indefinitely. It is a move that is both unconstitutional and an assault on the country’s fragile democracy.

The decision has been criticized by Nasheed’s MDP as a “complete defiance of the Constitution,” an act of “betrayal of democracy and the will of the Maldivian people” by a “discredited court.” Indeed, Article 111 of the Maldivian Constitution says a run-off must be held within 21 days of the first round of voting. September 28, the day the Election Commission had scheduled for the run-off, was that deadline.

Many observers believe that the postponement of the run-off is an extension of what happened eighteen months ago. The sharp polarization between pro and anti-democratic forces persists.

“Anti-democratic forces who we thought we had defeated in 2008, asserted themselves in 2012 and have regrouped now, acting through the judiciary to keep Nasheed from returning as president,” a Maldivian businessman, who participated in the pro-democracy protests a decade ago and is based now in India, tells The Diplomat. “By keeping Nasheed out, these forces are preparing the ground for the Maldives return to full-fledged authoritarian rule,” he warns.

Maldivians will be anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court’s verdict. Will it annul the election result and call for fresh elections, enabling Ibrahim to mount a renewed effort for the presidency? Will it dismiss Ibrahim’s appeal and announce a new date for the run-off, facilitating Yameen’s campaign? Or will it keep the election process in suspension, extending Waheed’s presidency? The verdict will depend on who the apex court is backing. Meanwhile the Maldivian military will be planning its moves.

Whatever the outcome, the future of the Maldives’ badly damaged democracy looks bleak.

Full story

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Customs seize 104 bullet sized packets containing illegal drugs

The customs had seized 104 packets containing suspected illegal drugs from the airport.

According to local media, the drugs were stored inside the body of a man who arrived to Maldives from Trivandrum, India.

The media reported that the man was taken to Indira Gandi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) to take the drugs out of his body.

The drugs were handed to police, who have been looking for one more person involved in the case, local media reported.

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