Tag: death sentence

Home minister uncertain over Majlis support to enact death sentences

As parliament faces requests to ensure the death penalty is carried out when administered by the courts, Home Minister Dr Mohamed Jameel Ahmed has said it was presently impossible to know the level of support within the Majlis for such an act without voting on the matter.

Local media, citing the home minister, reported yesterday that a letter had been sent to parliament requesting that death penalties assigned by the country’s courts be enacted in future. In previous cases where the death sentence had been favoured as a punishment by the judiciary over the past 60 years, the state has intervened to commute such verdicts to life imprisonment (25 years) instead.

Following the murder of a 26 year-old police officer yesterday on Kaashidhoo island in Kaafu Atoll – the eighth recorded homicide recorded this year in the Maldives – Dr Jameel, Attorney General Azima Shakoor and other prominent lawyers and lawmakers have publicly endorsed their support for implementing capital punishment to deter similar crimes.

According to a police statement, Lance Corporal Adam Haleem was suspected of having been attacked around midnight while on his way to report for duty.

Speaking to Minivan News, Dr Jameel said that amidst an issue of “general concern” concerning violent crimes being committed in the country, current statutes adopted in the Maldives failed to provide “guiding principles on the implementation” of the death sentence.

One recent high-profile case regarding the death penalty has been seen in the murder of lawyer Ahmed Najeeb.  On Thursday (July 19), Ahmed Murrath, 29, and his girlfriend Fathimath Hana, 18, were both sentenced to death after being found guilty in the Criminal Court of each having a role in Najeeb’s death.

The couple were arrested and charged with Najeeb’s murder after his body was discovered by police at Maafanu Masroora house, (Murrath’s residence) in early evening of July 1. The badly beaten body was found stuffed inside a dustbin with multiple stab wounds.

Responding to the trial’s conclusion last week, the government said it expected both verdicts to be commuted to life imprisonment (25 years) pending the outcome of a cabinet consultation – as his been the case with all other death sentences administered by the courts over the last sixty years.

With parliament already reviewing a proposed amendment that would make the enforcement of capital punishment mandatory, should it be upheld by the Supreme Court, Dr Jameel said he personally had no say on the outcome of a sentence already passed by the judiciary.

“I do not believe that the home minister has got any discretion to decide whether to implement or not to implement any sentence after it is delivered by a court of law,” he said.

Ask whether he believed that President Waheed would opt to commute the sentences passed to Murrath and Hana, Dr Jameel claimed that where alternative punishments were available for certain offences, it was possible in these cases to commute a punishment.

“However, in [regards to the] death sentence it is not clear whether this option is available or not,” he said.

When also considering the potential method of execution to be used on convicted criminals facing the death penalty, Dr Jameel contended that present statues failed to provide any procedures on how to implement such sentencing should parliament opt to uphold such verdicts.

“In the case of death sentences, the statutes do not provide procedures for its implementation, hence, where a death sentence exhausts all stages of the criminal justice process, a question of implementation arises that will still require implementation procedures to be enacted by legislation,” he said. “Currently, the statutes do not provide guiding principles on the implementation of this form of punishment.”

Commuted sentence

In addressing the sentences given by the court, the government said that President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan would be consulting with his cabinet and Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor over the verdicts.

President’s Office Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza told Minivan News last week that while consultations on the matter would be held, he did not expect a “departure” from the long-standing state policy of commuting death sentences to life imprisonment.

“There has been pressure from certain groups to uphold death sentences, but I do not think these calls are in line with the will of the Maldivian people,” he said. “The president will also have to look into our obligations under the various international treaties we have signed.”

Earlier this month, the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) asked the Maldivian state to enact legislation to officially abolish the death penalty as part of a wider review of human rights commitments in the nation.

“The state itself has admitted that capital punishment does not deter crime,” the statement noted.

Parliament review

Despite such calls, Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz said the death penalty could be executed within the existing justice system of the Maldives.

The chief justice told local media that Maldives legal system, being based on Islamic Sharia, allows the death penalty to be implemented.

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Hanaa and Murrath sentenced to death for Najeeb’s murder

The young couple charged with the murder of lawyer Ahmed Najeeb were on Thursday sentenced to death by the Criminal Court.

However the government said it expects both verdicts to be commuted to life imprisonment pending the outcome of a cabinet consultation.

Ahmed Murrath, 29, and his girlfriend Fathimath Hana, 18, were arrested and charged with Najeeb’s murder after his body was discovered by police at Maafanu Masroora house, (Murrath’s residence) in early evening of July 1. The body was stuffed inside a dustbin, badly beaten up and with multiple stab wounds.

The judge noted that the decision for death penalty comes following the pair’s confession in court and the statement from all eight heirs of Najeeb requesting for qisas (equal retaliation) – the death penalty – instead of accepting the alternative, blood money.

Murrath, who has previous criminal records, confessed to killing Najeeb out of anger and under the influence of drugs, alleging  the lawyer attempted to sexually assault his 18 year-old girlfriend while he was at Masroora House.

The court heard that Najeeb visited Masroora House on June 30 to provide legal counsel on a case related to cash missing from Murrath’s mother’s account and the issue of dividing the house.

Murrath said that he tied Najeeb to a chair, gagged him and taped his hands, feet and face while threatening him with a four-inch knife he brought from the kitchen. He said that his girlfriend Hanaa had no role in it and was sleeping while he killed the lawyer between 6:00am and 7:00am during the morning of July 1.

Hanaa however had confessed in court of “helping” to tape and bind the victim to the chair. She did not confess to killing him and said at the time she was sleeping, intoxicated from drinking alcohol.

The judge however noted that the confessions given by Hanaa and Murrath to the police investigators reveal that the pair together schemed to suffocate the victim to death irrespective of whether he had sexually assaulted her or not, because they wanted to steal money from him.

Even though Hanaa had not confessed to killing Najeeb, the judge concluded that she has to bear full responsibility for the murder as Najeeb was incapacitated from defending his life because she helped bind him to the chair.

This is the first conviction for the teenage girl from Rihaab house in Goidshoo island of Shaviyani Atoll, while it is the 15th criminal offense proved against her boyfriend. He has a 18 year jail sentence of which he had completed only three years. His offences included theft, assault, drug use, and breaking out of prison.

He was released last year under the government’s Second Chance program for drug offenders.  The programme was recently criticised by Home Minister Dr Ahmed Jameel over claims that it released prisoners, held in certain cases for committing serious crimes, for political purposes.

Commuted sentence

In addressing the sentences given to the pair by the court, the government said today that President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan would be consulting with his cabinet and Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor over the verdicts. In previous cases where the death sentence had been favoured by the country’s courts over the past 60 years, the state has itself intervened to commute such verdicts to life imprisonment (25 years) instead.

President’s Office Spokesperson Abbas Adil Riza said that while consultations on the matter would be held, he did not expect a “departure” from the long-standing state policy of commuting death sentences to life imprisonment.

“There has been pressure from certain groups to uphold death sentences, but I do not think these calls are in line with the will of the Maldivian people,” he said. “The president will also have to look into our obligations under the various international treaties we have signed.”

Just this week, the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) asked the Maldivian state to enact legislation to officially abolish the death penalty as part of a wider review of human rights commitments in the nation.

“The state itself has admitted that capital punishment does not deter crime,” the statement noted.

Parliament review

Despite such calls by organisations like the UNHRC, a motion related to the death penalty is currently being reviewed by the parliament which, if passed, will make the enforcement of the capital punishment mandatory in the event it is upheld by the Supreme Court, halting the current practice of the President commuting such sentences to life imprisonment.

Earlier this month, Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz said the death penalty could be executed within the existing justice system of the Maldives.

Following the murder of Najeeb, the chief justice told local media that Maldives legal system, being based on  Islamic Sharia, allows the death penalty to be implemented.

Following Najeeb’s murder – the seventh  homicide recorded this year alone – Home Minister Jameel and Attorney General Aishath Azima Shakoor, as well as and other prominent lawyers and lawmakers, have publicly endorsed their support for implementing capital punishment to deter increasing crime rates.

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Sermons question presidential authority on clemency: local media

Imams across the Maldives yesterday used their sermons to question the president’s authority to grant clemency for criminals sentenced to death in the country, local media has reported.

The Sun Online news service reported that yesterday’s Friday prayers were used to raise the issue of death sentences in the country, with imams saying that only the heirs of an alleged victim could decide on pardoning a criminal sentenced to be executed.

According to the report, the sermons also stressed that failure to implement the death penalty over fears of human activists or “powerful countries” was not allowed in Islam.

Speaking to Minivan News earlier this month, Chief Justice Ahmed Faiz said that more than 10 people have been sentenced to death in the past decade, out of which, none have been executed by the authorities tasked with the role.

For the past 60 years, the state has been commuting these death sentences to life imprisonment (25 years).

“The Maldives judicial system is constructed in a manner whereby another body is responsible to enforce the punishment once it is decided by the court,” Faiz explained.
“Not only in murder cases, but if all court verdicts on all crimes are properly enforced,  we will see the [positive] outcomes of these verdicts,” the Supreme court judge noted.

A motion related to death penalty is currently being reviewed in parliament which, if passed, will make the enforcement of the death penalty mandatory in the event it is upheld by the Supreme Court. This development would bring to an end the current practice of the country’s president commuting such sentences to life imprisonment.

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MP Muthalib reissues death sentence amendment to parliament

Jumhooree Party (JP) MP Ibrahim Muthalib has resubmitted an amendment to the Clemency Act that if passed would require any death sentence then upheld by the Supreme Court to be carried out.

Muthalib is the second MP to table a motion to change the Clemency Act after the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) Ahmed Rasheed last month forwarded similar amendments.  Rasheed later withdrew these amendments from parliament though over concerns about the need for new regulations like the Penal Code to be passed.

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.

MP Muthalib told Minivan News that the purpose of the latest amendment was to uphold Islamic Shariah in the Maldives.

”[The amendment aims] to avoid human beings from changing the verdict determined by Islamic Shariah,” said Muthalib. ”Its the same bill as presented last time.”

If the amendment gets passed, the president would not then have the authority to grant clemency on persons found guilty of murder, according to the parliamentarian.

The amended bill has been introduced in the parliament and now awaits a preliminary debate by members.

Early last month, MDP MP Ahmed Rasheed presented an amendment to the Clemency Act during a parliamentary session that required the death penalty to be administered without fail in cases where the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court.

According to MP Rasheed’s proposed amendment, if the Supreme Court upholds a death penalty ruled by any court in the land,  a sentence of execution will be required to be conducted.

The MP said he felt he had to present the amendment because of the increase in assaults and murder cases, which had “forced the living to live amid fear and threats.

In 2010, Rasheed said that 423 cases of assault were sent to Prosecutor General, with 454 cases in 2009 and 104 reported during 2008.

After the preliminary debate was concluded and he was given the opportunity to say the last word on the amendment, Rasheed withdrew the changes he had originally submitted to parliament.

The MDP MP said he withdrew the amendment because other necessary bills related to gang violence such as the Penal Code and Criminal Justice Procedure Bill had yet to be passed.

According to Rasheed, after these bills were passed, he will then re-submit the amendment.

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MDP MP proposes death penalty be administered if upheld by Supreme Court

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Ahmed Rasheed has presented an amendment to the Clemency Act during yesterday’s parliament session, requiring the death penalty to be administered where the sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court.

While the Maldives theoretically has a death penalty under Islamic Shariah, in practice this has been implemented as a 25 year prison sentence.

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.

In last year’s death penalty verdict, the judge referred to article 88[d] of the Constitution, which stated that cases of murder should be dealt accordingly to Islamic Shariah, and that persons found guilty of murder ”shall be executed” if no inheritor of the victim denies the murderer to be executed, as according to Islamic Shariah.

According to MP Rasheed’s proposed amendment, if the Supreme Court upholds a death penalty ruled by a lower court, or if the Supreme Court itself serves death penalty to a person, the death penalty shall be executed.

Rasheed said he felt he had to present the amendment because of the increase in assaults and murder cases, which had “forced the living to live amid fear and threats.”

He noted that police were sending these cases to court after “thoroughly investigating and researching” them, but the reason the criminals were escaping was because the Prosecutor General was sending “young, untrained lawyers” to the courts. In many cases, he alleged, the PG’s office was not giving its lawyers the police investigation report.

In 2008 Rasheed said 104 cases of assault were sent to Prosecutor General, increasing to 454 in 2009 and 423 cases in 2010.

”I beg this esteemed Majlis to try and make the Prosecutor General accountable,” he said, adding that if his amendment was passed, “violence in this country will be eliminated.”

”In Quran, Sural Al Baqarah verse 178, God says: ‘O ye who believe! the law of equality is prescribed to you in cases of murder: the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the woman for the woman. But if any remission is made by the brother of the slain, then grant any reasonable demand, and compensate him with handsome gratitude, this is a concession and a Mercy from your Lord. After this whoever exceeds the limits shall be in grave penalty’,” he said. ”During broad day light in this very city of Male’ people have been chopped, sliced and crushed using axes, machetes – just like fish are chopped.”

”I am saying brains have leaked out, after being constantly hit by shovels until their skulls are crushed,” he said.

DRP MP Ali Waheed said that he supported “killing those who kill.”

Waheed claimed that “more than 600 youths have been charged in murder cases.”

However, he said, ”slaughtering those who murder is not the solution. We should first try an adequate measurement for this [penalty] instead of implementing death penalties.”

”The corpse found in Lhaviyani Atoll is being buried today after taking DNA samples. But [police] is not sure whether it is the corpse of the Kendhoo person who fell in to the Kaashidhoo Ocean or the corpse of the person missing from Naifaru,” said Ali Waheed. ”This is the situation today.”

President’s Member on the Judicial Services Commisson (JSC), Aishath Velezinee, who wrote her thesis on Sharia, equality and family law, said the country had to first attend to the issue of trust in the judiciary before discussing the death penalty.

“While Islam provides for the dealth penalty in certain cases where preconditions are met, there must be no doubt as to justice has been delivered. There must be absolute faith in the judicary for the death sentence to be delivered – it cannot be reverted,” she said.

“It is an affront to the constitution we adopted for parliament to be discussing this issue without first addressing the multitude of complaints against the JSC. Parliament has shown absolute disregard for the lack of independence of the judiciary.”

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Islamic Foundation calls for death sentence if apostate fails to repent

The Islamic Foundation has called for self-declared apostate Mohamed Nazim to be stripped of his citizenship and sentenced to death if he does not repent and return to Islam.

Nazim claimed he was “Maldivian and not a Muslim” during a public question-and-answer session with Islamic speaker Dr Zakir Naik, the first time a Maldivian has publicly announced he is not a Muslim.

According to the Maldivian constitution all citizens are required to be Muslim, and the country is always described as a “100 percent” Muslim country.

The 37 year-old angered many in the approximately 11,000-strong crowd with his statement during Dr Naik’s ‘Misconceptions about Islam’ lecture on Friday.

Dr Naik responded that Nazim had read the wrong books and “deviated from Islam”, and requested him “to read correct books on Islam, and Inshallah, you’ll come back to Islam.”

However Nazim did not relinquish the microphone and pressed Naik to clarify the penalty for apostasy.

“In Islam, there are many cases, it doesn’t mean death penalty,” Dr Naik explained. “But if the person who reverts who was a Muslim then converts to and becomes a non-Muslim and propagates his faith and speaks against Islam, and if it’s Islamic rule, then the person should be put to death. But just because a person who is a Muslim becomes a non-Muslim, death penalty is not the ruling.”

Nazim was escorted from the venue by police for his own protection, after members of the audience attempted to attack him.

Police Sub-Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said two men who tried to attack Nazim were arrested after they attacked the police officers protecting him. Nazim himself “was not injured because police protected him,” Shiyam said.

He was taken to a police building where a crowd of protesters had gathered, calling for him to be punished. Shiyam confirmed that Nazim is now being held in an undisclosed location for five days while police investigate “in consultation with the Islamic Ministry and the Prosecutor General’s office.”

Today the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives issued a press statement calling on judges to give Nazim the opportunity to repent “and if he does not, then sentence him to death as Islamic law and Maldivian law agree.”

“The Islamic Foundation believes that the person who announces apostasy should be punished according to Islamic laws,” the NGO said, warning that Nazim represented “a disturbance to the religious views and the religious bonds that exist with Maldivians.”

“Hereby if this man does not do his penance and come back to the Islamic religion, the Islamic Foundation of the Maldives calls to take the citizenship away from this man as mentioned in the Maldivian constitution.”

If case crossed into areas not covered by the laws of the country, “then the judges should rely on Islamic law,” the NGO stated, as per article 142 of constitution which says judiciary shall look into Islamic shar’ia on matters not covered in law, and sentence accordingly.

“So it is requested that the commissioner of police run the legal research on this man and take this to the Prosecutor General’s office. We also request the Prosecutor General to go through this matter and to take this man to the criminal court for trial,” the Islamic Foundation said.

A government official involved in the legal process, who requested that his name and department be kept anonymous, said he was “really worried” and described the case as “a very sensitive subject”.

“Police are investigating the case,” he said. “My understanding is that the court authorities will give [Nazim] opportunities to change his mind. I think he will be given every opportunity to think about his decision.”

Minister for Islamic Affairs Dr Abdul Majeed Abdul Bari told Minivan News that Ministry officials had acted quickly to remove Nazim from the venue “for his own protection”, and had now handed the matter over to the legal system.

“I don’t know if there is a penalty for apostasy according to Maldivian law,” he said.

The Adhaalath Party issued a press statement claiming that the act violated the constitution of the Maldives and called on the government “to strengthen Islam and protect the constitution.”

Religious NGO Jamiyyathul Salaf declined to comment on the matter during a press conference held today on another matter, however NGO Jamiyyathul Musliheen expressed “concern and regret” over the incident.

”Not a few number of Maldivian youths are moving further from the religion, and many of them are going renegade,” the NGO said in a press statement, adding that “it is a responsibility of the government to strengthen Islam in the country.”

President of the Human Rights Commission to the Maldives (HRCM), Ahmed Saleem, said “what happened was really unfortunate.”

“I think the best thing will be to talk to him and to make him understand the situation and the repercussions, talks which HRCM will welcome,” Saleem said.

He said he was unsure how the Maldivian government would handle the incident.

“I’m afraid of the reaction from the international community should we resort to harsh action,” he said. “I don’t think it would be in our interest – we have just been given a seat on the UN Human Rights Council. This is something we need to think seriously about before we start using harsh language.”

Minivan News contacted several local human rights NGOs however they had not responded at time of press.

A senior government source, who requested anonymity, said he felt the case “will be a real test of how the government will abide by its international commitments.”

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair was on medical leave and unable to comment.

Minivan News was unable to reach Nazim himself for comment, however a person close to the matter described him as “a very sensible guy who will think of the people around him. But he will not give up on calling for people to be more honest about themselves. I think he will become a genuine refugee if he refuses to take back his words,” she said.

A transcript Dr Naik’s response to Nazim is available here.

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Clemency Board invites prisoners to apply

The Clemency Board has begun its work today and the President’s Office has started sending out forms for prisoners to apply for clemency under the new Clemency Law.

The law was passed by Parliament on their last session of 2009. It gives President Mohamed Nasheed the power to grant pardons and commute sentences for prisoners.

It also allows the president to reduce sentences, as well as grant life sentences where death sentences had been previously issued.

The Bill specifies crimes that will not be eligible for pardon, such as murder, terrorism, sexual abuse of children, rape, drug trafficking, offences against Islam, and homosexuality.

According to the government, the Bill is meant to help those prisoners who did not get a fair trial, were wrongfully convicted or were convicted solely on the basis of extracted confessions.

Prisoners must pass two requirements to apply for clemency. They must show they have exhausted all other avenues of appeal, and must have completed at least one third of their original sentence.

It had been previously reported that criminal records of those convicted under the old Constitution would be wiped clean if they were pardoned, but Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said that was not the case.

“There are many provisions for such matters as criminal offences and criminal records, but their records would not be wiped clean.”

“We began issuing forms today to multiple centres around Malé and they are also being sent to Island Offices,” Zuhair said.

He believes implementing the Clemency Board is a good move for the government, as “there are many pending appeals” from prisoners. “There are nearly 2,000 prisoners in the country right now,” Zuhair said.

He added that although “outrage and accusations” about the reasons for the implementation of the board will probably come, “the president is very clear on this issue and has been working on it for a long time.”

On 9 March 2010 President Nasheed appointed the members of the Clemency Board, who are to advise the president regarding the release of prisoners or commuting of sentences.

The Board is chaired by Attorney General Husnu Suood. The other members are Mariyam Suzee Adam (social sector), Nazil Afeef (legal sector), Shifa Mohamed (education sector), Dr Ahmed Razee (health sector), Sh. Mohamed Farooq (religious scholar), Maizaan Ali Maniku (civil society), Ahmed Adil (Parole Board), Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mohamed Sodiq, Ahmed Mahloof (legislature) and Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem.

President of the Board Husnu Suood said this law has been passed in accordance with the Constitution and believed the government “has moved a step forward.”

“Under the Constitution there is clemency, and there must be a provision for the president to implement this.”

Suood said under the previous Constitution this power was not implemented often, and when it was, it was usually abused.

“This will not be exercised as a political tool,” Suood assured.

He also hoped people would not see it as the government ‘releasing’ criminals, as there were established criteria under which the law can be applied.

Suood explained the president cannot give pardons for the seven specified categories but he can commute death sentences to life imprisonment.

Deputy PG Hussain Shameem said he thinks the board is a good start, but will “only work with other support systems, such as psychological and social services and a proper prison system.”

Shameem said the Clemency Law is “very tricky, the way it’s drafted,” as it “gives a lot of loopholes.”

For instance, Shameem said, the president can make the ultimate decision on pardons regarding the seven categories which are technically not eligible for pardon.

“There are some contradictions,” he said, but he believes people have to “take it positively.”

Before the Clemency Law, he said “many prisoners did not see the end of the tunnel.”

Under the new law, he believes “if prisoners have faith in the system, and they know they could get out early on good behaviour, they will behave.”

He said the law was open to anyone who had successfully completed one third of their sentence, excluding those convicted for the seven specified crimes.

Shameem added he did not believe “there are people who were wrongfully convicted” in the prison system.

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