The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) has accused the government of interfering in the trial of Adam Naseer, labelled by the President Mohamed Nasheed as one of the country’s ‘top six’ drug lords.
Naseer was aquitted by the Criminal Court last Sunday following a year-long police investigation, after the judge cited a lack of evidence.
DRP’s Vice President Umar Naseer claimed Adam Naseer was freed because police withheld evidence from the court, notably fingerprint and video evidence, and accused the government of trying to influence the judicial process.
“Police failed to produce video and fingerprint evidence. There is no reason why police should fail in this, it’s very basic. I suspect interference by senior government officials,” he said.
He furthermore said he would seek the dismissal of Attorney General Husnu Suood through parliament’s internal affairs committee, accusing him of working with Adam Naseer during the 2008 trial of Abdul Hameed Abdul Samad. Suood worked in a private law practice before accepting the post of attorney general.
“Adam Naseer is a friend of Husnu Suood,” Umar claimed, alleging to journalists that Naseer offered police witnesses in the Samad case bribes of Rf30,000 and a motorcycle each to alter their testimony.
Asked how he came by such information, Umar, a former police officer himself, said he was approached by several serving police “who knew I was advocating harsher punishment for drug offenders.”
Asked why the government would seek to acquit someone they themselves had labelled a drug lord, Umar said “if the government not included Adam Naseer in the list, the public would have been surprised.”
Spokesman for the President Mohamed Zuhair said Umar Naseer’s allegations were “a load of rubbish.”
“The attorney general has no links to Adam Naseer. If Umar Naseer has legal evidence to back these claims he should act like a respectable political leader and take it to the police rather than the media. Otherwise he looks in danger of trying to [slander] to gain political fame.”
Adam Naseer was acquitted not so much by a lack of evidence as by “intrinsic problems with the judiciary. It is was the only part of the state did not go through reform and many of the judges are the same as they were under the former government,” Zuhair said.
Prosecutor General Ahmed Muizzu said the PG’s office would prefer not to discuss the Adam Naseer case as it had not yet exhausted all levels of the judicial system and intended to appeal to the high court. He said he expected it would take two weeks for the appeal to be lodged at the high court.
Sergeant Abdul Muhsin from the Maldives Police Service also declined to comment, claiming that “we will respect the decision of the court whatever it decides.”
The “usual proceedure” is to submit all evidence at hand to the court, he explained.
Husnu Suood had not responded to Minivan News at time of press.
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backbone umaru if your really have GUTS then accusse the judge of having links with adam naseer, and lead the movement for reforming the judiciary which is bedridden by corruption..we need someone like you to do the job, how about a punch just like you did near presidential place oww i forgot you are capable of torture too..
can minivan news also publish news some weight. Pls note husnu suood is the attorney general not the PROSECUTOR GENERAL.
In the former constitution the ag was in charge of prosecuting criminal charges but in the new constitution the ag has a different mandate and cant interfere in criminal prosecution.
This is like criticising say the education minister for something done by a trade minister.
if the AG still had the mandate to prosecute in criminal cases there may have been a conflict of interest given husnu suood represented a drug baron in 2008.
But here the onus rests on the PG not AG
thanks
Umar Naseer,
We know Ex-cops are only good for night watchmen, just because you became a "Naibu Zaeem" your brain want jump from a moron to a genius over night, you will always be a nut case, so please don't display your ignorance in public.
Umar Naseer, Now we know who is behind all the drug dealings in Maldives. one day you want to kill the drug dealers and to-day, viola, you want to save them from the bullet.
We know you don't have a brain that is working but bow many mouths do you have.
Somebody ought to teach this guy a lesson. His aligations are highly defamatory to Suood. I know he is a clown and people tend to just laugh at his comments but he is taking attention away from important issues. He's spent enough time in the spotlight and now starting to be an irritant.
ok umar naseer, if hameeds case was bribed as you utter, why was that complete hameed’s sect sentenced to prison?, so that means husnu sood bribed the police to acquire additional facts so that the judges may possibly provide them harsher penalty, and in hameeds case what proof did they find other than a video footage of hameed running his motorcycle, hilarious item is, guys who marched from that street was also sentenced for existence.. These same judges at that time didn’t need evidence to sentence a person for life, when government decides they just do it .. that’s how greatly they are associated with previous regime
, umar i previously considered that you are a gentleman who indisputably desires this drug threat to be blocked, but at this moment, i can make out that your in the unchanged diversion among the same group who played this game in extremely controlled means , while they were in authority or power.. Ask yourself who was the President for last 30 years while all these drug dealers running free, with boundless powers? When the police seize these dealers (whom they fancy to bring them to their size) at beginning of the year, at the end of the year maumoon's gives them afaamu or something like that.. Were you sleeping at that time THE great Umar naseer .. ? (this Adam Naseer was top and the last individual on the inventory of previous police mob or mafia headed by DEU jina who belongs hameed’s cell ( if im not mistaken more than 7 individuals were sentenced to life in jail ) , they left behind adam naseer for some reason? God knows!? But in any cost Adam Naseer should have be arrested in order to avoid competition for the sake somebody? who knows? And please name any drug dealer which DEU caught other than this adam naseer? Answer is no !! But luckily adam naseer turned out to be a useful in this dire economic crisis for somebody! So .. , the legacy follows )
Umar Naseer is jumping up and down thinking he will be the running mate of Thasmeen in the next elections.
If we know anything from Gayyom's 30 year regime, it is that he must have already decided who will be the running mate. I am guessing it will be one of his offsprings, probably Dhunya.
With that, we will see the end of DRP and the end of Gayyoom's influence on Maldivian politics.
How can anyone still be listening to this joker?!!! Can't believe that anyone even voted for him to become a VP in such a big political party like DRP....guess there are some people who like being entertained by him!!!
umar: are you the same umar who ran for presidency in 2008. during that time you have said you will kill all the drug dealers and amputate the hands of all the robbers.
Umar...everyone knows you are bloody dingbat. What you say doesn't have even a pinch of sense. So it would be better for you to shut that gap of yours. Birdbrains!!!
well, its just a shame that we have these types of brainless nut heads to lead the opposition parties to do the right job as a oppsition,
well, they say this is 100% democracy...!
The clue is in the name, what other similarities lurk beneath the facade of a thoroughly fake politician.
First you completely fail as a political leader and take a long time to even raise enough support to dissolve your excuse of a party.
As if this isn't bad enough, you insult the intelligence of even the most basic voter in the street, by joining the next party so rapidly disappearing down the toilet. Not only this, they see this as such a noble gesture they instantly promote you to one of the pointless VP's. This is the stuff of circus entertainers, you are becoming as ridiculous as you are useless.
Why are you supporting drug addicts and drug sellers? Do you have some investments in that industry? You must find some real political juice to make your shakes with, try immigration, or actually battling the illegal importation of drugs, or maybe the prosecution of the swindling past dictator , in fact didn't you call for that in front of his previous home not so long ago?
GO and sell your fire equipment and stop trying to light fires for yourself, you have left your brain somewhere back in one of the prisons where you bullied people.
Is this really the calibre of what we can expect from the executive of the so-called main opposition party? Your job is to make sure the government keeps on it's toes, at this rate it will be flatfooted or even sitting for a long long time.
Umar,your words carry no weight nowadays.Who'll believe you when even a kid on the street knows that the judiciary is controlled not by the ruling government but still bound by shackles of a unified vicious ideology.People'll do weird things to get media attention ,even if it were to eat their fellow citizens flesh raw...Bon Apetite Umar 😀
What Umar says has an element of truth, he just doesnt know how to say it right, cos i dont think it really makes any sense in his head...all he wants to do is accuse, and bring down the legally elected government. Not try to find solutions...
The element of truth I am talking about is that the govt does not seem to understand that publicly talking about an on going case, esp a criminal case is not proper...as it hampers with DUE PROCESS...and the trial cud end up being a circus, and thus prevent the defendant from getting a fair trial. (SUB JUDICE)
I also believe that the President shud not feel it necessary to publicly criticize judges and sentences passed by them...and for the President to single out judges cud very well be seen as trying to interfere, influence, or pressure the courts/judges... The president (and others)shud refrain from putting his views into such matters so publicly...esp since Adam Naseer's case is being appealed to the high courts...so all the legal stages has not been exhausted. Even if Adam Naseer is a drug pin, he too has the right for a fair trial...
Seeing Umar Naseer in action always reminds me of the quality of our politicians. Or rather, the lack of it.
This guy is incorrigible!
Umaru you should stop degrading yourself any more than it already is…ur word has got no credibility any more. You have disgusted the few supporters you had by joining DRP, after all those allegation you put Maumoon and the former government through…
Yes Umaru Naseer is another failed politician…He is one example of a person bursting with greed to become the next president of Maldives…
Let me tell you the real intentions of Umaru abandoning IDP, He knows he won't succeed the presidential race in 2013, So the only place he can quench his crave for attention is the Parliament and only DRP can provide that ticket for him.
It's not a garaunteed win, but realistically speaking he NOW has a chance of wriggling in to the next parliament, and then the real Circus will begin...
I call up on the government to take him to court on trial due to allegations he had made to the President and the Presidential palace saying that there is a Bar in Mulee Aage and that the Bar is supplied with alcohol by a resort on a regular bnasis. He also said that the Police and MNDF have been instructed not to check these parcels that comes in to this bar from Resorts. I saw this vide of Umar alleging government on DhiTV last night. He was talking on the gathering organized by PA & the Ihuthijaaju.
Please... there is a limit to everythin and I beleive he has gone way beyond.
Human Rights commission.... where are you now?? can some one utter such bullshit against another person and remain as if nothing had happened???
Dear DUE PROCESS
How long does someone has to wait without saying a word for the DUE PROCESS to complete.
The case guy having the sword was thrown out because there no judicial regulation to sentence him
The gang roaming the streets of Male' with swords and other weapons was set free because "NO EVIDENCE"
And now this guy....How long my dear..for this circus to continue
Whether it is the President or the common man on the street, they have their right to speak out their mind even if it is about the Judiciary - or is this Judiciary DIVINE
There might actually be a kernel of truth in the rantings of even the most base lunatics.
I support the current administration in their drive for democratic consolidation, however, one cannot help but have strong suspicions regarding the development of the Adam Naseer case.
In progressive democracies, the chief executive would not be expected to publicly criticize members of the judiciary. The Police, even the MPS, would not be expected to publicize the arrest of an individual, following the President's own PR stunt which laid the groundwork, and then submit a case so flimsy, the most upstanding judge would find it impossible to convict.
True, it is an undeniable fact that the Maldivian judiciary has been steeped in corruption since time immemorial. If this whole fiasco is the ruling party's attempt at instigating greater public outrage at the judiciary in order to unseat certain judges then it seems rather clumsy.
Still, Mohamed Nasheed strikes me as a man of immense intelligence and what might seem as fumbling may unfold at a later stage as well-thought political strategy.
To all those who are righteously indignant on the subject: These things happen. If the MDP plans to reform the judiciary by any means possible then more power to them. My only concern is that future administrations may resort to similar tactics for causes less noble as this one appears.