Day: May 4, 2011

Suitcase murder victim’s family request death penalty during court hearing

Relatives of a murdered women whose body was placed in a suitcase and then dumped into rubbish at a Male’ construction site last year have requested that her alleged killer face the death penalty during an ongoing trial in the country’s Criminal Court.

Haveeru has reported that the family of the murdered woman, identified only as Shereen, had generally decided in favour of calling for the death penalty under the rules of Islamic Shariah, should suspect Mohamed Najah be found guilty of killing her.

According to the report, during the Criminal Court hearing that took place today in Male’, relatives of the victim, including her father, brother and three sisters, called for the sentence to be imposed over the phone from Lhaviyani Thun’dee Magistrate Court.

Shereen’s mother, who was present at the Criminal Court hearing in Male’, also stressed her preference for the death penalty if Najah was convicted, with Judge Abdulla Mohamed stating that three more relatives, who were unable to attend the court session, were required to provide their consent for the death penalty.

Statements are expected to be taken from these relatives at the court on a later date, the report added. Shareen’s body was discovered on January 2, 2010.

Currently, death penalties imposed within the Maldives are able to be reduced to a 25 years prison sentence by the president under the Clemency Act. In November 2010, the Criminal Court of the Maldives issued a death sentence to a person found guilty of murder. However the last person to actually be judicially executed was Hakim Didi in 1953, who was executed by firing squad after being found guilty of consipiracy to murder using black magic.

The death penalty issue has become extremely pertinent for the nation’s politicians of late with a number of amendments proposed this year to the country’s Clemency Act that outlines policy related to any possible death sentence.

on April 18, Parliament accepted an amendment presented by Jumhoree Party (JP) MP Ibrahim Muthalib requiring the death sentence to be implemented if the Supreme Court upholds an execution decision issued by itself or a lower court.

Out of the 59 present MPs, 14 declined the amendment, while three parliamentarians did not vote on either side.

MDP MPs Alhan Fahmy, Eva Abdulla, Hamid Abdul Gafoor, ‘Reeko’ Moosa Manik, Ilyas Labeeb, Imthiyaz Fahmy, Ibrahim Rasheed, Rugiyya Mohamed, Mohamed ‘Colonel’ Nasheed, Ahmed Rasheed, Mohamed Aslam, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and DRP MPs Ali Azim and Hussein Mohamed voted to dismiss the amendment.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Maldivian candidates complete US coastguard programme

Five students from countries including the Maldives, the Bahamas and Jamaica have completed a 17-week instruction course designed to train officers in the United States Coast Guard.

The five candidates were trained along with 37 US students at an Officer Candidate School as part of a programme that aims to verse participants in a military lifestyle along with dealing with “highly technical information” required by coastguards as part of their duty, reports the New England-based newspaper, The Day.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Island councillor reportedly appointed without by-election

The Elections Commission (EC) has appointed a member to the Kamadhoo Island Council in Baa Atoll without a by-election after an application deadline passed with only one valid candidate.

Haveeru has reported that Ali Naaidh of Rosemead, Kamadhoo, was appointed to the local island council after the EC rejected two other applications from candidates from the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) that it said were “incomplete”.

A by-election has initially been planned for a month from today (June 5) after Ahmed Shafeeq, a previously elected member of the council resigned on the grounds of dealing with “personal problems”, the report added.

The EC were unavailable for comment when contacted by Minivan News at the time of going to press.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Tour operators cancelling bookings after protest coverage

The impact of four nights of violent protests in Male’ has been felt by Maldivian tourism representatives attending the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, the region’s largest such expo.

“Travel operators in Taiwan have said they are postponing and cancelling group bookins because of negative perceptions [of safety] in the Maldives,” a tourism source attending the expo told Minivan News.

“We just had another two confirmed bookings cancelled today because of reports of riots and instability. We worked hard to get these bookings and the potential domino effect is really worrying – people panic.”

The source noted that the average spend of couple holidaying to the Maldives was US$7000.

Reports in major newswires Associated Press (AP) and AFP on the Maldives’ protests were widely syndicated in world media, drawing largely from comments made by spokesperson Gayoom’s spokesperson Mohamed Hussain ‘Mundhu’ Shareef.

“Police are chasing protesters. Some of those injured have been rushed to hospital,” Shareef told AFP by telephone after last night’s protests, adding that scores of people had been arrested, “including parliamentarians Ali Arif and Ahmed Mahloof.”

“Arif and Mahloof were later released, but we have no news of Naseer’s whereabouts. Our legal team is trying to trace him,” Mundhu said.

Police said that Naseer was released at 1:30am, an hour after he was arrested. Minivan News spoke to Naseer today.

The previous evening, Shareef informed AP that 5000 people were demonstrating in the capital and dozens had been “crushed brutally”, including women.

“The opposition also blames Nasheed for failing to manage the economy – worth over a billion dollars – by recently devaluing the currency, while food prices have risen by as much as 30 percent,” AFP reported.

“Shareef said the protests aimed to emulate those across the Middle East and North Africa, pushing for political reforms in dictatorial regimes.”

Hong Kong yesterday became the first country to put out a travel warning on the Maldives, raising the country’s threat level to ‘amber’ alongside Israel, Iran, Indonesia, Russia and Pakistan.

China’s Xinhua news agency reported a government spokesperson as saying that “Those who plan to visit the Maldives or are already there should monitor the situation and exercise caution.”

Chinese visitors to the Maldives now constitute the greatest number of tourism arrivals, and are a major emerging market. A sharp increase in recent years offset a decline in European arrivals caused by the global recession in 2008.

The Maldives Association of Travel Industry (MATI) has meanwhile issued a statement claiming that reports on the situation were “exaggerated and ill-informed.”

“The series of demonstrations and public unrest by political groups opposed to the government of the Maldives have, over the last few days, led to some reports in the international press of civil unrest in the country.

“The Maldives is safe for visitors and remains peaceful and stable. The police and other authorities have the political situation well under control,” MATI stated.

Further protests – which the opposition maintains are ‘youth-led’ despite the active organisation of opposition MPs – are planned for the weekend, with reports of islanders travelling to Male’ to participate.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Police officer faints in court

The Criminal Court has said that a police officer who attended the court to request extension of detentions for persons arrested fainted inside the chamber last night.

”This incident occurred while he was presenting the request for extension of detention inside the Criminal Court,” said the court. ”The cause of this incident may be that he had to work long hours and was not fed.”

The court said the officer received no further injuries during the incident.

The Court noted that these days Male’ was in a harried condition and police and judges had been working very busy along with court staff.

”Many have been arrested by police on different charges lately. Last night 90 persons were brought before the judges,” said the Criminal Court.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

MDP council approves “direct action to defend government” on Friday

The National Council of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has approved a resolution to conduct “direct action to defend the government, the constitution of the Republic of the Maldives, the President of the Maldives and senior government officials” against an opposition-led protest planned for Friday afternoon.

“Following disturbances over the past three nights, the [opposition allied] parties said [Monday night] that as they do not recognise the President and consider the government inept, their real purpose is to gather people to the capital Male’ from all across the country on Friday, May 6, 2011, to take the President out to the Republic Square, remove him from office in the presence of the police and army, and then torture and kill the President along with ministers and MDP leaders,” the resolution states.

The MDP resolution adds that as the opposition parties’ “decision to carry out this brutal deed was announced openly and publicly on VTV and DhiTV at 2.30pm last night [Monday night]” a council sub-committee shall be formed to determine the measures to be taken “in defence of the state.”

The committee consists of newly-elected MDP President Dr Ibrahim Didi, Vice-President Alhan Fahmy and MP “Reeko” Moosa Manik, leader of the party’s parliamentary group.

While the protests have adversely affected the public, school children and shops in the busy intersection of Chandanee Magu and Majeedhee Magu, the MDP resolution claims that corrupt ministers of the former government, wealthy businessmen and resort owners capable of controlling the dollar supply were leading and orchestrating the demonstration “in the name of youth”.

The resolution further accuses the protestors of “misleading the international community and the public” by spreading false information using opposition-aligned media.

Bad blood

Moosa meanwhile claimed today that a large group of opposition protesters broke into the house where his three children use to live, Henveiru Zeeniya, and made death threats against them and their grandmother before causing damage inside the residence.

“Fortunately, my children don’t live there anymore,” Moosa told the MDP website.

Moosa alleged that the group was acting on orders from Umar Naseer of Gayoom’s faction of the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), whose dismissal as Deputy Leader precipitated the rancorous split in the party.

On the second night of the protests, VTV showed footage of Moosa getting hit on the head with a rock while he was attempting to confront the protesters with a group of MDP activists.

Umar Naseer told Minivan News that “Moosa Manik must have been drunk and he probably meant to say Mohamed Nasheed and mistakenly said ‘Umar Naseer’.”

He called on Moosa to clear his car’s trunk, referring to the incident where some alcohol bottles were discovered inside a car belonging to Moosa, an incident over which Moosa sacked his driver claiming it was a set up.

Naseer added that protests would continue this evening, starting from the artificial beach.

”The youth are organising these protests, and we are taking part in it,” he insisted.

The National Council of the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) approved a resolution Tuesday to determine direct action to “defend the government, the constitution of the Republic of the Maldives, the President of the Maldives and senior government officials” against an opposition-led protest planned for Friday afternoon.

“Following disturbances over the past three nights, the allied parties said [Monday night] that as they do not recognise the President and consider the government inept, their real purpose is to gather people to the capital Male’ from all across the country on Friday, May 6, 2011, to take the President out to the Republic Square, remove him from office in the presence of the police and army, and then torture and kill the President along with ministers and MDP leaders,” the resolution states.

The MDP resolution adds that as the opposition parties’ decision “to carry out this brutal deed was announced openly and publicly on VTV and DhiTV at 2.30pm last night (Monday night)” a council sub-committee shall be formed to determine the measures to be taken “in defence of the state.”

The committee consists of newly-elected MDP President Dr Ibrahim Didi, Vice-President Alhan Fahmy and MP “Reeko” Moosa Manik, leader of the party’s parliamentary group.

While the protests has adversely affected the public, school children and shops in the busy intersection of Chandanee Magu and Majeedhee Magu, the MDP resolution claims that corrupt ministers of the former government, wealthy businessmen and resort owners capable of controlling the dollar supply were leading and orchestrating the demonstration “in the name of youth”.

The resolution further accuses the protestors of “misleading the international community and the public” by spreading false information using opposition-aligned media.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Commodity prices vary “significantly” between retailers, reports Economic Development Ministry

The Department of National Planning and the State Trading Organisation (STO) have conducted a price comparison exercise across Male’ in a bid to show that while some retailers are charging inflated prices for basic commodities, most prices have risen little.

Speaking yesterday evening from the President’s Office, Economic Development Minister Mahmood Razee said the statistics, which were compiled by the Department of National Planning in collaboration with his ministry, indicated that although certain prices had been found to have risen in the last few months, there was no pattern to link these costs solely to a controversial managed float of the local currency.

The opposition has maintained that demonstrations raging across Male’ this week were against the government’s decision to implement a managed float of the rufiya and are led by youth unhappy with rising commodity prices.  These claims were made despite the active involvement of dismissed opposition Deputy Leader Umar Naseer, and MPs Ilham Ahmed, Ahmed Mahlouf, Ali Waheed, and Ahmed Nihan.

However, Razee added that discussions were ongoing with the STO – a main buyer of goods to the country – to try and maintain import supplies of 27 key food items in attempts to try and keep prices stable as well as enacting a cabinet pledge to cut import duty on diesel fuel by 50 percent.

Speaking ahead of a fourth night of protests by young people, parliamentarians and political activists on the streets of Male’, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Mahlouf said that although he had not been made aware of the content of the statistics at the time, he believed that protestors would not believe or be satisfied by the government’s claims and reaction.

“At this time, I think it would be difficult to accept that this is a genuine or positive message. At this point I don’t think [this] one press conference will help people,” he said.

Mahlouf added that he believed comments made by President Nasheed earlier this week, where he allegedly denied knowledge of the street protests concerning increased living costs that have garnered news coverage all over the world, had been extremely offensive to people gathering on the streets .

“It would be better to have a statement from President Nasheed apologising for the stupid comments he has made,” he added. “These comments have only made protestors more angry.”

Government findings, which were compiled on April 2 by officers visiting ten different stores across Male’, were said to highlight prices found to vary, sometimes significantly, between the retailers.

Speaking at press conference last night alongside Finance Minister Ahmed Inaz and representatives from the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA), Razee said that when talking about changes in prices, it was important to try and determine how extensive they were.

“Yes, there are changes in prices, however, we should also see that in terms of essential commodities, what are the different brands that are there [in stores] and the price variations between them?” he said.

Following price comparisons conducted on May 2 at 10 different stores in Male’, Razee took the example of the prices of five powdered milk products, where prices between the stores were said to vary between Rf150 and Rf345. In addition he also pointed to the price differences in diapers, which he claimed varied between Rf118 and Rf150 for the same product.

The figures presently supplied by the government to Minivan News did not appear to verify these price fluctuations.

Razee added that he was unable to speculate on how long some of these potential differences in prices may have been present in stores across the capital or when and for what purpose they may have been implemented.

“What we are saying it, if you look at the price fluctuations that were there in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and if you look at the price fluctuations of the last few years, you will see there is no clear cut format or reason to believe this is directly related to the float of the currency,” he said. “Yes, it would have a bearing, but what needs to [be understood] is that there may changes to the prices. However, these are varied.”

Razee claimed that the government was not using this explanation as an excuse to avoid acting on public price concerns and said that measures were being taken to try and offer stable prices for certain “essential products”.

“We are in consultation with the STO and we have identified together 27 elementary items, out of which six are currently imported directly. [STO] is going to import the other items [on this list] as well to try and maintain price stability and ensure the availability is there,” he said. “In addition to this, the cabinet today advised the president to remove 50 percent of the duty on diesel. So this will give some relief to power generation, electricity bills and transportation costs.”

Finance Minister Inaz added that the government had decided to release some of its statistics to try and highlight current prices being paid by goods in relation to the last few years.

“It is very easy in a small economy to play with and manipulate the confidence of the economy,” he said. “Confidence is the most important factor to build an economy and it can be easily twisted. We agree the prices have gone up, but we want to maintain these price levels at a competitive level compared to other international rises.”

Cost statistics

The government, in figures compiled by Department of National Planning, outlined a number of changes in the average prices paid for goods between March 2010 and March 2011.

These price changes include:

• One kilogram of loose rice – up 1.07 percent from last year

• One kilogram of ordinary flour – down 1.89 percent from last year

• One kilogram of frozen chicken – up by 8.73 percent from last year

• One medium sized coconut – up 69.71 percent over last year

• One hundred grams of garlic – up 22.34 percent last year

• One kilogram of potatoes – up 8.74 percent last year

• One kilogram of imported onions – down 12.64 percent from last year

• One kilogram of yellow coloured dhal – up 17.63 percent from last year

• One 500 millilitre bottle of Kinley mineral water – down 30.30 percent from last year

• One 185 gram can of Felivaru brand fish chunks in oil – up 22.24 percent from last year

• One unit of state-supplied electricity – unchanged from last year

• Thirteen kilogram of cooking gas – up 12.12 percent from last year

• One litre of petrol – up 32.65 percent over last year

• One packet of Fitti brand small baby diapers – up 4.35 percent from last year

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Umar Naseer among 30 arrested in fourth night of ‘cost of living’ protests

A fourth night of protests in the capital city of Male’ ended shortly after midnight with the arrest of 30 demonstrators, including former deputy leader of the opposition, Umar Naseer.

Protesters gathered at the artificial beach area made to march towards the intersection of Male’s main street Majeedee Magu and the tourist strip Chaandhanee Magu, the focal point of the protests so far, but were blocked by police.

Thirty people were taken into custody with most later released, including two men delivering a pizza and the former Deputy Leader of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), Umar Naseer.

“Umar Naseer was trying to make the situation worse and was not obeying police orders,” Shiyam said, adding that the former deputy leader was released later in the evening.

Naseer was dismissed from the Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) last year by the party’s disciplinary committee, for organising protests without the authorisation of the party’s Council.

His dismissal from the party led to an acrimonious factional split, after the Elections Commission upheld the DRP’s decision to strike Naseer from the party’s membership register.

Last Thursday the ‘Z-DRP’ faction – named after the former president and ‘honorary leader’ Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, announced it was “commencing work”. The party has maintained that the four nights of violent protests since then are ‘youth-led’ demonstrations against the rising cost of living.

After being blocked by police, protesters – fewer than previous protests this week – split into groups and began gathering in areas across the city demanding Naseer be released.

Police did not use much force until a group of protesters came near the Chaandhanee Magu intersection and attempted to gather in the area.

Minivan News observed police aggressively dispersing protesters in the intersection with violent force. Well-known comedian Yousuf Rafeeu ‘Yousay’ was among the protesters and was reportedly injured and admitted to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), after a group of unknown assailants attacked him while he was attempting to run away from police.

Unlike previous protests this week, Minivan News did not observe a large gathering of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) supporters attempting to clash with anti-government demonstrators.

Police continued to arrest small groups of protesters until 2:30am, using cable ties to restrain them and removing them from the scene.

Police also confiscated a pickup truck carrying speaker equipment they said was being used disruptively. It was later returned to its owner.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said shop owners around the intersection had begun complaining to police that the protests were adversely affecting their businesses. have been gathering – the intersection of Male’s main road Majeedeee Magu and the tourist strip on Majeedee Magu.

“The area has among the most expensive rents in Male’ and shop owners are complaining to us that they have been unable to profit every night of the riots, which are taking place during their peak trading hours,” Shiyam said. “They are taking huge financial loses.”

Deputy Commissioner of Police had Mohamed Rishwan yesterday announced that protests would be restricted to the open artificial beach and the tsunami monument areas in Male’, unless prior permission was given by police or Male’ City Council.

The week of protests has attracted international coverage. Spokesperon for former President Gayoom, Mohamed ‘Mundhu’ Shareef told Associated Press that the protesters had done nothing unlawful in trying to demonstrate in the intersection, as the constitution permitted protests at any place without notice.

The opposition has announced a large-scale demonstration on Friday, with reports that supporters from islands are being brought to Male’ for the protest.

The government has said it “welcomes peaceful protests and respects the right to freedom of assembly”, and acknowledged concerns about the economy, yesterday halving import tariffs on diesel.

However President Mohamed Nasheed’s Press Secretary, Mohamed Zuhair, accused former President Gayoom “of taking advantage of economic situation to cause violence in the streets. These protests are more to do with Gayoom trying to shore up his position in the opposition, than the state of the economy.”

“It is unclear what Mr Gayoom hopes to achieve through violent protest. His faction says it wants ‘the price of things’ to fall. Perhaps Mr Gayoom could explain how throwing bricks, smashing windows and torching motorcycles helps reduce the cost of living,” Zuhair said.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong yesterday became the first state to issue a travel advisory for the Maldives, raising the country to ‘amber’.

China’s Xinhua news agency reported a government spokesperson as saying that “Those who plan to visit the Maldives or are already there should monitor the situation and exercise caution.”

The threat indicator now ranks the Maldives alongside Israel, Iran, Indonesia, Russia and Pakistan.

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)

Conflicting reports on death of elderly man following violent protests

The President’s Press Secretary Mohamed Zuhair said the government had not been officially informed of the death of an elderly man who reportedly died after being injured by police attempts to disperse the crowd during yesterday morning’s protests.

Police spokesperson Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam meanwhile said the police had not received any such complaints about a death of an elderly man in the riot. Indira Gandi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) also told Minivan News that it had not received any information about a fatality during the protests.

However, local radio station SunFM reported State Home Minister Mohamed Naeem as saying that an elderly man who was in the riot was injured that admitted to hospital, and died later that evening.

”An elderly man was injured that night and we received news that he passed away that same evening,” SunFM quoted Naeem as saying. ”Some say he died because of his injuries while others say he died of a heart attack, but this has to be confirmed.”

”We have not so far received any official reports regarding incident,” said Zuhair, insisting that police had been “very professional” and had the government’s full confidence.

”We have every confidence in the police to protect the state,” Zuhair said. ”The government welcomes peaceful gatherings but will not tolerate any sort of violence. In no country do the police tolerate this amount of violence.”

Likes(0)Dislikes(0)