Tag: maldives news

Convict arrested for robbery

A man brought before the court for allegedly stealing a wallet had previously been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in 2006 for possession of illegal drugs.

Court records show that Adam Firdous Ushman, G. Dhonbageechage, had first been sentenced to six months banishment in 2001 for robbery and again in 2005 to six years in jail for possession and use of illegal drugs.

“Convicts sentenced to jail being brought before the Criminal Court for committing various offences during the period when they are supposed to be serving the sentence is increasing day by day,” said the court.

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May 1 designated a public holiday to mark Labour Day

President Mohamed Nasheed has declared International Labour Day, May 1, a public holiday in the Maldives beginning this year.

Cabinet said the decision would highlighting the government’s commitment as well as efforts of private parties to protect and promote workers’ rights in the Maldives.

The Tourism Employees Association of Maldives (TEAM) has meanwhile announced it intends to hold a ‘May Day’ rally to promote workers’ rights and pressure the government to comply with international labour conventions.

“There are huge concerns about the recent regulations on strikes, which totally bans strikes on resorts,” said TEAM Vice President Maroof Zakir.

Maroof said TEAM was hoping civil service employees, taxi drivers and workers from other sectors would join tourism employees for the 4pm-6pm rally in Male’ on May 1, International Workers’ Day.

“We will start from the social centre and march down Majeedee Magu,” Maroof said.

International Workers’ Day or Labour Day is a common public holiday in many countries.

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Cabinet to hold May 12 meeting in Addu

Cabinet yesterday decided to hold a community cabinet meeting in Addu City on May 12.

The concept of community cabinet meetings was introduced on November 30, 2010, with the stated aim of bringing government working closer to the people. The first cabinet meeting to be held outside Male’ was in Kulhudhufushi.

The President’s Office said the meeting in Addu would enable people to interact directly with the Cabinet, and receive public inputs into decision and policy-making, and understand public concerns on issues.
The President’s Office further noted that the ministers would travel to islands and hold meetings open for entire island communities in which the meetings are held.

The Community Cabinet meeting to be held in Addu City will be open for the people from Addu City as well as Fuahmulah, the Office added.

Community Cabinets are forms of community forums held in few other democracies to strengthen government-public relations.

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A team of three to sanitise the seas: The Hindu

India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives have joined hands to keep the seas in their sphere of influence free from unwanted visitors such as pirates, interlopers and drug runners, reports India’s Hindu newspaper.

“With Somali pirates getting closer, we have deep concern and are working closely with India and Sri Lanka in preventing any unwarranted incident. We have over 25,000 fishermen on the high seas on any given day. Our concern is for their protection as well. We have a surveillance programme to monitor fishing vessels but the point is we have to work in cooperation with the two Coast Guards so that they increasingly exchange information on the movement of suspicious vessels,” Ahmed Naseem told The Hindu at the end of his first visit to India as Maldives Foreign Minister.

“Somali pirates can be bold enough to come all the way to the Maldives. They sacked the Mahe port in Seychelles. They could do that here,” he had said adding Indian assistance was instrumental in the Maldives beefing up its surveillance and patrolling capability. The Maldives had seven radars bought and installed with Indian assistance and they were harmonised with the naval grid here. Recently, India-Maldives security partnership led to the capture of two rogue fishing vessels in the Maldives waters.

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Cabinet to establish National Sports Institute

Cabinet will establish a National Sports Institute in the Maldives, after yesterday’s cabinet meeting.

Sports programmes are currently operated under the Ministry of Human Resources, Youth and Sport, from the Youth and Sports Development Centre.

A separate and focused sports training and education institute could more effectively develop sports in the Maldives, cabinet heard.

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Expatriate arrested after alleged abuse of five year-old girl

Police have arrested a expatriate worker suspected of abusing a five year-old girl on Thoddu in Alif Alif Atoll, reports Haveeru.

The man was discovered hiding in the ceiling of an abandoned house on the island, escaping after he was brought before the island secretariat on Saturday and allegedly beaten.

Haveeru cited sources as saying that the man had been living on the island for three years and was employed in construction.

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“Issues with amounts paid” says Taxation Commissioner of GMR payments

GMR Male International Airport will be subject to a tax audit, according to reports in local newspaper Haveeru, with the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) contesting the airport service charge and oil re-export royalties paid to the government did not match expected amounts.

Commissioner General of Taxation, Yazeed Mohamed, told Haveeru that MIRA was acquiring necessary documents from the Immigration Department, Customs and the Maldives Airport Company.

“We are authorised, under the law, to procure documents and conduct tax audits. We looked into the speculations and found that there are some issues with the amounts paid,” he told Haveeru.

A GMR spokesperson meanwhile told Haveeru that both charges were calculated based on information stored in the company’s departure databases: “We’d welcome all those who like to pay a visit and check the information. We haven’t committed any act of deception,” the official was quoted as saying.

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MPs clash over postponing recess

MPs clashed today over a resolution proposed by MP Ahmed Mahlouf to postpone parliament’s upcoming recess at the end of April to complete legislation currently at committee stage to reform the criminal justice system.

Several MPs from both main parties argued that convicts were not “roaming free and committing crimes with impunity” because of parliament’s failure to pass necessary laws.

MP Mahlouf – who has sided with the “Zaeem DRP” in the ongoing factional strife within the main opposition party – came under fire from his former Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) colleagues for taking a holiday after submitting the resolution.

Last Wednesday’s sitting of parliament was cancelled reportedly because Mahlouf, who was supposed to present the resolution to the floor, was out of the country.

Defending himself from the intraparty criticism, the DRP MP for Galolhu South asserted that he had not been “sun tanning on the beach” but had faced a family emergency.

“I would deeply regret it if you vote against the resolution saying ‘Mahlouf took a holiday,’” he said.

In the ensuing debate however, DRP MPs Ali Azim and Abdulla Abdul Raheem accused Mahlouf of submitting the resolution “with the intention of deceiving the public.”

While Azim claimed that Mahlouf was “the MP that took the most number of holidays during the past session,” Abdulla Abdul Raheem accused the DRP Youth Wing President of ulterior motives behind the resolution.

Raheem alleged that Mahlouf’s true purpose in delaying the recess was “to conduct business transactions with certain people here.”

Shifting blame

Praising Mahlouf for “continually raising the issue of curbing gang violence” in parliament, ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group leader “Reeko” Moosa Manik however contended that the necessary bills “cannot be finished in one night with us cooking rice pudding and staying here overnight.”

Moosa concurred with other MPs that the absence of legislation could not be blamed for either unenforced sentences or dubious judgments by judges.

Following consultation with the National Crime Prevention Committee and law enforcement authorities, the Minority Leader explained that a sub-committee was in the process of drafting temporary legislation containing crucial provisions of the three belated bills.

If opposition leaders could “control voting by their parliamentary group,” said Moosa, the bill should easily be passed on Thursday.

“Increasing the number of days we spend talking here is not going to bring a solution,” said People’s Alliance (PA) MP Abdul Azeez Jamal Abubakr, arguing that the resolution would not make a difference “one way or the other” as the bills in question were at committee stage and the reviewing process could continue during the recess.

MDP MP Mohamed Riyaz however backed the resolution and criticised opposition MPs for questioning Mahlouf’s intent.

On the issue of unenforced sentences, the MDP MP for Dhandhoo claimed that there were 622 convicts out of jail when the previous government left office.

“Those who killed people [in custody] in Evan Naseem’s case are at home today,” he said, referring to eight former prison guards found guilty of beating a 19 year-old inmate to death in September 2003.

Moreover, Riyaz continued, failure to locate former Atolls Minister Abdulla Hameed to face charges of corruption shows that Commissioner of Police Ahmed Faseeh has “failed.”

MDP MP Ibrahim Rasheed meanwhile criticised the “lazy attorneys” at the Prosecutor General’s Office for failing to secure enough convictions.

In his turn, DRP Deputy Leader Ali Waheed argued that as the Maldives had a presidential system, it was President Mohamed Nasheed who should bear responsibility for the crime situation.

While police have recently revealed identities and crime records of 17 dangerous criminals, Waheed said that according to police statistics there are over 600 youth active in gangs in Male’ alone.

Moreover, he added, estimates from different state institutions of the number of convicts not serving sentences did not match.

Implying that he did not support the resolution, Waheed suggested breaking for recess to “give counselling to our political leaders” as they were “obsessed with winning power” instead of serving the public.

Independent MPs Ismail Abdul Hameed and Ahmed Amir meanwhile called for constitutional amendments to entrust wider powers to enforcement authorities, such as a longer period of detention and more legal discretion for judges.

Undelivered summons

Meanwhile in the continuing war of words between the rival opposition factions, DRP MPs Azim and Raheem alleged today that Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim – who was presiding over the sitting at the time – had dodged Criminal Court court summons eight times to date on the grounds that he was busy at parliament.

In March 2010, Nazim pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the former Ministry of Atolls Development.

As the common man was routinely sentenced in absentia, said MDP MP Ahmed Easa, “what law is missing that the Honourable MP for Dhiggaru can’t be taken to court?”

Responding to accusations against the “missing” former Atolls Minister, MP Ahmed “Redwave” Saleem loudly denied the allegations against the long-serving Speaker of the People’s Majlis.

“There were big thieves in the previous government, why don’t you go find them?” he suggested.

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Maldives’ oil spend spikes in line with world oil prices

Saudi Arabian oil exporter Aramco has expressed unease about the global economy as oil prices have continued to rise, as unrest drops the rate of production in Africa and the Middle East.

Prices reached US$124 a barrel yesterday, after peaking earlier this month at US$127. Worldwide output fell 700,000 barrels in March amid ongoing political turmoil in Libya, Yemen, Syria, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.

CEO of Aramco Khalid al-Falih told an industry gathering in South Korea that “We are not comfortable with oil prices where they are today… I am concerned about the impact it could have on the global economy.”

The Maldivian economy is dependent on oil to such an extent that is spends a quarter of its GDP on it – US$245 million – the vast majority on marine diesel, making imported energy one of the single largest drains on the country’s economy.

Customs documents obtained by Minivan News in January showed that Maldives was spending almost US$100,000 more per day more on fossil fuels than it was in the summer of 2010. At that time, oil was US$86 a barrel.

By the same calculations but with today’s oil price, the Maldives is paying an additional US$450,000 per day for oil compared to summer prices last year.

In Male’, the increase in price has compelled the State Electric Company Limited (STELCO) to increase the fuel surcharge component of its electricity prices, with Haveeru reporting a STELCO official as acknowledging an increase in complaints about the cost of their bills price. The fuel surcharge reached Rf 1.41 per kilowatt hour in March, dropping slightly to Rf 1.27 in April.
“The rise in fuel prices leads to an increase in the fuel surcharge, which eventually push the electricity charges up,” the official said.
The Maldives has meanwhile pledged to become carbon neutral by 2020, but little has been done to wean the country from the growing financial burden of its oil addiction.

In a previous interview with Minivan News, President Nasheed’s Energy Advisor Mike Mason suggested that spiralling oil costs could prove to be a strong argument for a return to sailing.

“I think there is a huge opportunity to take a knowledge of sail, wind and current – the thinking that has served the Maldives well for 2000 years – and apply modern technology such as solar to create a new transport paradigm. A sailing vessel with a modern hull, utilising modern technology can reach 30-40 knots, and would greatly reduce the reliance on diesel,” Mason said at the time.

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