Day: November 17, 2011

Local NGO sues BML over inability to withdraw dollars

A local NGO hosted in Naifaru of Lhaviyani Atoll has sued the Bank of Maldives, after the bank declined to issue dollars stored in the NGO’s dollar account with the bank.

Local newspaper SunFM reported that the NGO filed the suit in Naifaru Court, and claimed that the money was aid granted by foreign parties. The NGO said it was suffering major losses and an inability to function because the bank was declining to issue the dollars.

The paper reported that the NGO had requested Naifaru Court order the bank to release the money.

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JSC completes report on misconduct of Chief Criminal Court Judge

The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) has completed its investigation into the alleged misconduct of Chief Criminal Court judge Abdulla Mohamed.

The JSC has not yet decided whether to take action, however Supreme Court judge Adam Mohamed, also a member of the JSC, told local media this week that the Chief Judge had violated the Judges’ Code of Conduct by making politically contentious statements to local television media.

A JSC official who requested he not be named told Minivan News that while the report into Abdulla Mohamed’s misconduct had been completed, “there are still proceedures to follow. The judge will have 30 days to reply to the report, and then a decision will be made [whether to forward the matter parliament]. We are not obliged to give any information to the media until the report is finalised.”

The case against Abdulla Mohamed was presented to the JSC in January 2010 by former President’s member of the JSC, Aishath Velezinee, after Abdulla Mohamed appeared on private network DhiTV and expressed “biased political views”.

In 2005, then Attorney General Dr Hassan Saeed forwarded to the President’s Office concerns about the conduct of Abdulla Mohamed after he requested that an underage victim of sexual abuse reenact her abuse for the court.

In 2009 following the election of the current government, those documents were sent to the JSC.

Velezinee said today that this was the first time the JSC had ever completed an investigation into a judge’s misconduct.

“There are many allegations against Abdulla Mohamed, but one is enough,” she said.

“If the JSC decides, all investigation reports, documents and oral statements will be submitted to parliament, which can then decide to remove him with a simple two-thirds majority.”

Press Secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair, welcomed the JSC’s investigation and said that it had the potential to be the “first time ever that a Maldivian institution has decided against a judge.”

Abdulla Mohamed had presided over the ongoing corruption trial of Deputy Speaker and People’s Alliance (PA) MP Ahmed Nazim, Zuhair noted, in which he banned media from entering the courtroom.

A decision on Abdulla Mohamed would signal that the JSC intended to “clean up the judiciary”, Zuhair said.

He acknowledged that the executive had little ability to involve itself with the judiciary under new separation of powers, “however there is a clause that requires the President to ensure the rule of law and respect for justice, and respect for the Constitution.”

“There has been growing public concern within the President’s party over the impartiality of the judicial system,” Zuhair said.

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Laamu drug kingpin sentenced to 25 years imprisonment

The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced a man identified by the police as one of the top drug dealers in the Maldives to 25 year imprisonment for illegal trade of narcotics, with an additional five years for possessing an illegal narcotic without a prescription.

The Criminal Court identified the person as Hassan Yousuf, Mathimaradhoo ward of Gan in Laamu Atoll.

The court saidthat  according to police officers that attended the scene to arrest Yousuf, he was holding a cigarette pack in his hand when he saw the officers and he threw the pack away.

When police picked up the cigarette pack and searched it, they found two grams of heroin inside.

Yousuf was arrested last year September in a special operation conducted by police, after they were informed that he was in possession of illegal narcotics.

“Police and society have recognised him as the top dealer in Laamu Atoll, and he has now been caught for the second time,’’ said Head of Drug Enforcement Department Superintendent Ahmed Jinah, at the time. “A recent case involving him is in trial, and he was again caught with suspected narcotics.”

Jinah said Yousuf was in police custody and the court had granted an extension of his detention to 10 days.

“The atolls have lately been used by drug traffickers for transportation and establishing hideouts,’’ Jinah said. ‘’We have conducted special operations in the islands to curb the number of users and dealers, which is hard and challenging due to the low numbers of police officers in the atolls and the large areas [to cover].’’

Jinah in September said police had observed that Addu Atoll, Laamu Atoll and Noonu Atoll were being used by dealers and users for transportation of drugs and the construction of hideouts.

Another drug related case against Yousuf is still ongoing in the court.

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Islamic Minister asks government to remove idolatrous SAARC monuments

Islamic Minister Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari has requested government authorities remove SAARC monuments that contradict Islam, placed in different areas around Addu City.

Dr Bari did not give further information about the matter to Minivan News, but confirmed that the media reports about the request he made were correct.

Local media have reported that Dr Bari has asked the President’s Office, the Foreign Ministry and Addu City Council to take down the offending SAARC monuments, although he did not specify which.

Speaking to Minivan News today, Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair said that the government will respect Dr Bari’s decision.

‘’All concerned authorities will respect the word of Dr Bari,” Zuhair said, but added that it was “very difficult for the government to return a monument gifted to the government, especially when it is handed to us by another Islamic country,’’ he said.‘’If you think of it diplomatically, it is very difficult.’’

Zuhair said the Islamic Minister’s request will be forwarded to the President, who will decide whether or not to remove the monuments as soon as he comes back to office after his post-SAARC vacation.

Former President of Adhaalath Party and current State Islamic Minister, Sheikh Hussein Rasheed, today told Minivan News that he was not informed of the decision of the Islamic Minister.

‘’I do not know anything about it, nor did the Minister discuss anything like that with me,’’ Sheikh Rasheed said.

He said that the monuments “do not contradict the religion of Islam.”

‘’They were all given to us by member countries of SAARC, and represent their countries. The Pakistan monument showed how Pakistan became an Islamic country from its Buddhist origins,’’ he said. ‘’Although the monument does not contradict Islam, it should not be kept there if Maldivian citizens do not want it to be there.’’

The Pakistani monument was toppled during the SAARC Summit and subsequently set ablaze, and eventually stolen outright. The Sri Lankan monument, a statue of lion, was reported yesterday to have been coated in crude oil.

However Deputy Sri Lankan High Commissioner Shaanthi Sudusinghe told Minivan News today that she had been informed by the Addu City Mayor that the reports were a domestic political issue,  and that the Sri Lankan monument had not been vandalised.

“He said the monument was made of carved stone and had black characteristics,” Sudusinghe said, “and that the monuments were being afforded full protection.”

Former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s political party, the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM), this week hailed the vandals of the Pakistani monument to be “national heroes”, and vowed to fight for their release from police custody in court.

Yesterday, PPM filed a case with police against the Maldives Customs Department for allowing the monuments to be imported to the Maldives.

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Criminal Court concludes hearing in ‘dangerous criminal’ suit

The Criminal Court has concluded hearings in a case concerning Aseel Ismail, who was listed by the police as a ‘Dangerous Criminal’.

In the suit, the Prosecutor General accused Aseel of attacking a man using a knife and disturbing the peace during an unlawful assembly.

Aseel was already sentenced to eight years after the Criminal Court found him guilty of attacking a man with a machete.

The media reported that the court had scheduled to hear the victim speak, but was unable to hear from him he had since died of his injuries.

The media reported that the judge will deliver a verdict in the next hearing.

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Sleeping man attacked, robbed of Rf 200,000

Last night a group of people entered a house in Henveiru ward and attacked a middle-aged man while he was asleep in the house, before fleeing with more than Rf 200,000 (US$13,000), a laptop and a mobile phone.

Local media reported that police confirmed the incident, but gave little information about the case.

Newspaper Haveeru reported that the man was attacked with a screw driver and suffered injuries to his head.

Police are investigating the case.

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“Copenhagen Accord was not an admission of defeat”: Foreign Minister

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Naseem has delivered a keynote address in Dhaka at the Climate Vulnerable Forum organized by the Government of Bangladesh.

The forum was inaugurated by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and attended by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

“Today, conventional wisdom suggests that Copenhagen was a failure,” Naseem said. “I beg to differ. In my opinion, the Copenhagen Accord was not an admission of defeat, but the first step on the road towards a solution – a solution based on the vision laid down in the Male’ Declaration. That vision was simple: that global warming will only be halted when States realize the futility of arguing over whom should cut emissions, and begin competing to become the leaders of the new industrial revolution – a revolution based not on the finite power of coal and oil, but on the infinite power of the sun, sea and wind.”

Minister highlighted that it was the hope of President Nasheed that this year’s meeting will achieve on to remind the world of the plight of the most climate vulnerable countries and in so doing confront the  growing sense of apathy and re-energise the international community to  act.

Naseem also called for “a strong progressive message [at] COP 17 in Durban, encouraging the UNFCCC to establish a new legal framework on climate change which encourages and helps states take positive action, in other words to invest in low carbon technology, rather than only demanding that they accept negative obligations – namely to cut emissions.”

In his statement Minister also stressed on the challenges and difficulties faced by developing countries in shifting to a low carbon development pathway, and to give guidance to the international community regarding how it can best held and support that shift.

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Remittances leading Bangladesh out of poverty

Mohammad Majnu Miah has bought some land and rebuilt his house, in which a television and CD player take pride of place, thanks to the remittances his wife and son send him from the Maldives, where they have worked for six years, writes Anis Ahmed for Reuters Africa.

“The money comes to roughly 30,000 taka($400) a month, a small fortune in a nation where one-third of the population survives on $1.25 a day – and is a big part of why some villages, like Shahabazpur, are slowly crawling out of the grinding poverty that grips 30 percent of the Bangladeshi people.

“I have to manage and invest their income here at home. Using their hard-earned money in a meaningful way is not an easy task,” Majnu said. “I plan on buying a refrigerator soon.”

Shahabazpur, which lies around 150 km (90 miles) east of the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka and about half a kilometre from the bank of the Meghna river, now has three primary schools, at least six mosques, a community clinic, and dirt and asphalt roads connecting many homes.

Most of its 5,500 residents are much better off than they were a decade ago. They grow enough rice and vegetables to feed their families, have savings to support their other needs, and dress in new clothes for festivals and social occasions.

The secret is the remittances from people working abroad, said Abdul Wahid, a village bank employee.

“The money from expatriates is the main source of income for many families,” he said. Roughly a thousand villagers currently work abroad.

They are not alone. More than 7 million Bangladeshis are spread all over the globe, doing everything from running food courts and staffing shops, to tilling land in African nations and tending fruit gardens in the deserts of the Mideast.

They send home roughly $11 billion annually, according to central bank and Bureau of Statistics data, a key earner for a nation whose 2010-2011 GDP came in at $100 billion.

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