Year: 2011

Death of tourist at Kuredhoo Island Resort last year was accidental, finds UK inquest

An Oxfordshire inquest into the death of 42 year-old UK national Sharon Duval, who died while honeymooning with her husband Nick Duval at Kuredhoo Island Resort, has concluded that her death was accidental.

Sharon Duval and her husband, who together ran the Highwayman pub in Kidlington, visited the resort in early October last year. Her body was found on the seashore.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam told Minivan News at the time that Duval had been observed drinking at the resort’s bar until late in the evening prior to her death.

The inquest heard that on the night of her death the Duvals had been socialising with another couple, however when the group finished drinking Sharon Duval decided to walk back to her room in a different direction to the others.

“Sharon had her own mind and she would do things her own way, so we left in two different directions,” her husband told the court.

Nick Duval dozed off while waiting for Sharon’s return, but at 4:00am reported her missing and began a concerted search of the island.

“I looked everywhere, I walked up and down that island, checked every sun lounger I could find, looked under the hedges and the bushes, went to the ladies’ toilet, walked into the gents’ toilet. I walked all around, just kept looking and looking – I never expected she would be in the sea,” the Oxford Mail reported Duval as saying.

While he was searching, Sharon Duval’s body was found by another tourist, Nigel Bower, who told the court he was walking along the beach with his family looking for crabs by torchlight.

Kuredhoo staff informed Duval of his wife’s death and her body was returned to the UK for a postmortem, which revealed that her blood alcohol concentration was three and a half times the legal UK driving limit.

According to the Oxford Mail, Nick Duval had admitted to the court that he had once been arrested after an argument between the couple ended violently.

The court also heard that the deceased had been taking medication for depression since 2004, and in 2009 had overdosed on Paracentemol and Ibuprofen due to work-related stress “and her volatile relationship with her partner”.

However the postmortem ruled out “any third party involvement” and gave the cause of death as accidental drowning with a contribution of alcohol intoxication.

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Tribunal orders CSC to reinstate job of DPRS Superintendent Husham

The Employment Tribunal has today ordered the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to reinstate Mohamed Husham to his job at the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Service (DPRS) after the tribunal determined that he was terminated from his post without grounds as specified in the Employment Act.

Husham was a Superintendent at the DPRS and the head of Maafushi Prison.

According to the tribunal he was terminated on September 7 last year. Haveeru  reported that during the hearings Husham claimed that he was terminated for refusing to obey “unlawful” orders.  He claimed that he was transferred from Maafushi Jail to an office in Male’ where he was not even provided with a chair for one and a half years.

The CSC was ordered to consider Husham as an employee of the CSC and to pay his full salary and allowances from September 7 until his reinstatement. The order also obliges the CSC to pay Husham within 15 days and to then inform the tribunal.

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DRP factions clash over use of party logo, resources

The opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party’s (DRP’s) faction loyal to former President Maumoon Abdul boycotted last night’s council meeting, where members from the rival faction expressed concern that the party’s logo and resources were being used without knowledge of either the DRP leadership or secretariat.

An unnamed council member told newspaper Haveeru that the DRP office was being billed for air time bought by members of the Gayoom faction without official approval.

Former Deputy Leader Umar Naseer, who was dismissed from the party in December, however told press today that “any member of the party has the right to use the logo.”

Umar also criticised the DRP council’s decision last night to finalise its 2010 audit report ahead of today’s deadline, claiming that the report makes no mention of the Rf500,000 (US$38,910) outstanding debt the party was ordered to pay Island Aviation by the Civil Court.

Umar claimed further that the audit firm was not given either adequate time to complete the report or proper details of the party’s expenses.

With the internal strife intensifying, MP Ahmed Mahlouf meanwhile told local media that the Gayoom faction was preparing to submit an amendment to article 119 of the Decentralisation Act to ensure that councillors who are dismissed from his or her party shall not be stripped of their seat.

The DRP Youth Wing President claimed that he had learned of schemes by DRP Leader Ahmed Thasmeen Ali’s faction’s to dismiss councillors who did not side with them.

“If we have to, we will seek the [ruling Maldivian Democratic Party’s] MDP’s help with this,” said Mahlouf, suggesting that “Thasmeen faction” MPs would not vote in favour of the amendment.

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Chief Justice assures full cooperation to National Crime Prevention Committee

The National Crime Prevention Committee formed to curb the rise in gang violence in the Maldives has said it has met with Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz and other judges on the Supreme Court bench, who have said they will fully cooperate with the committee to control gang violence.

The Supreme Court said it will resolve the issue of cases left pending in the courts without trials being conducted, said the committee in a statement.

The Supreme Court also offered assurances that it would assist the committee in issues related to the judiciary, the President’s Office said it a statement.

‘’Discussions at the meeting held at the Supreme Court were mainly focused on the prosecution of crimes such as rape, fraud, theft, drug related violence and other serious criminal offences within the existing legal framework,’’ the President’s Office said. ‘’The Chief Justice and the Prosecutor General, who also attended the meeting, assured the Committee it was working swiftly to prosecute and deliver justice and to reduce crime rate and tolerance of criminal activity in society.’’

The Chief Justice said it was important for the committee to work closely with the police and requested public cooperation with the police in their effort to find and bring criminals to justice.

President Mohamed Nasheed formed the crime prevention committee to curb gang violence and gang related crimes in the Maldives two days ago.

The committee consists of National Security Advisor Ameen Faisal, Home Minister Hassan Afeef, Attorney General Abdulla Muiz, State Defence Minister Mohamed Muiz Adnan and Prosecutor General Ahmed Muiz.

The President’s Office said that the committee had during their first meeting decided to establish a special task force to curb serious and organised crime.

The task force will be led by Maldives Police Service and will consist of officials from the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation Services (DPRS), Attorney General’s Office, Ministry of Education, Courts of law, Prosecutor General’s Office, Maldives Customs Service, Ministry of Health and Family, Ministry of Human Resources Youth and Sports, Immigration Department and officials from the Local Government Authority.

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Ameen Construction to gift 100 homes to Addu City

Abdulla Mohamed, owner of local company Ameen Construction, has announced that the company will build 100 houses in Addu City under a philanthropic effort, reports Haveeu.

Abdulla explained that the Rf6 million (US$466,900) project will begin as soon as plots are finalised while citizens of Addu City will be able to apply for the free housing units through the City Council.

Ameen Construction was recently awarded government contracts for 25 housing units and a convention centre in Addu City, work on which is currently ongoing.

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MPL employee arrested on suspicion of stealing baby goat

An employee of the Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) was arrested by police yesterday on suspicion of stealing a baby goat from a cargo ship, according to Haveeru.

A police media official explained that the employee was taken into police custody and handed over to the customs authorities while he was attempting to smuggle the infant goat out of the MPL lorry parking area.

The media official added that the investigation will begin once customs sends the case over to police.

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Cabinet proposes tripling import taxes on tobacco, double for alcohol

Cabinet has proposed the doubling of the import taxes on alcohol, pork and certain plastic products, and tripling the taxes on tobacco, in an amendment to the Maldives Import and Export Act.

Tariffs will be dropped 15 percent on milk products, if parliament passes the amendment.

Regulation to permit the sale of pork and alcohol to foreigners in large hotels on inhabited islands was scuttled in February 2010 after opposition from conservative groups. A licensing system was phased out in the lead up to the regulation and was not restored following its repeal, leading to a flourishing black market trade in the banned commodity.

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Police ask banks to track people trading large amounts of dollars

The police have met with the senior officials of local and international banks based in Male’ to track persons who are found to buying dollars continuously, in a crackdown on the trading of dollars in the Maldives.

There are people who take advantage of dollars provided by the banks for persons who require travel abroad for medical purposes, said police.

“Police asked the banks to identify those who take advantage of the dollars that are supposed to be provided to people who need the money for medical purposes, and to share this information with us,” police said.

Police said they also discussed with banks about how to resolve the issue and what measures would be more effective.

“Police discussed the upgrading on banks’ policies to monitor staff suspected of trading dollars illegally,’’ said Superintendent of Police Mohamed Jinah.

Police would identify those buying dollars and collect information the information according to monetary laws, Jinah said.

He also said that Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) was cooperating with police in its special operation to control the black market for dollars.

The special operation began this week after President Mohamed Nasheed during a Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) rally said that he would “put a police officer behind evey dollar” in the country if necessary.

Nasheed said that there were adequate amount of dollars in the country and that there should be no reason the country was suffering a dollar shortage.

After the police operation started, police have been checking suspicious people and places where illegal dollar transactions are likely to happen.

The set dollar rate in the Maldives is Rf12.75, however during the dollar shortage it has increased to 13, 14, 15 and sometimes even as high as 16 on the black market. However banks routinely refuse to change rufiya into dollars, and experts have claimed that the crackdown will do little to address the demand for foreign currency or the budget deficit, which has led to the pegged rate not reflecting the value of the rufiya.

In 2009 June, to ease the dollar shortage, the cabinet decided to give letters of credit facility to importers of basic food items and other necessary commodities to the Maldives.

The President’s Office then formed a committee consisting of senior officials of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and the Ministry of Economic Development, to review applications for receiving letters of credit, and give the letters of credit in a priority order.

”The government believes that this measure will ease the problem of the dollar shortage,” the President’s Office said at the time. ”The increased number of expatriate workers in the Maldives has contributed to the problem of dollar shortage in the Maldives. It is estimated that every month more than US$2 million is sent out from the Maldives by the expatriate workers. The cabinet members noted that reducing the number of expatriate workers was also an important measure to be taken.”

In December 2009, Spokesman of MMA Ibrahim NaseerNaseer told the local media that the deficit in foreign exchange is a result of MMA printing a large amount of Maldivian rufiyaa to make up to government spending which was more than the government income.

In August 2009, MMA Governor Fazeel Najeeb told the press that the cause of the dollar shortage was that rufiya notes had been printed in large amounts, exceeding the amounts of dollars in the country and dollars coming in to the country, and had been injected into circulation.

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Bhutanese Prime Minister to visit the Maldives

Prime Minister of Bhutan Jigme Thinley will meet with President Mohamed Nasheed later today, during a visit to the Maldives.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair told Haveeru that the talks would focus on a proposed ferry network to be established between SAARC member countries, and that Nasheed was seeking Thinley’s support.

Thinley will visit the tsunami monument and “other significant places in Male'”, said the President’s office. National Fflags have been put up at the ‘Lonuziyaaraiykolhu’ area near the monument.

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