Tag: maldives

Supreme Court on recess until December 15

The Supreme Court, the Civil Court, the Criminal Court and the Family Court have begun a recess period today.

The Supreme Court and Criminal Court will restart trials on December 15, while the Civil Court will restart on December 10. The Family Court will be on recess until December 30.

Even though the superior courts are on recess, trials may be scheduled and rulings issued if necessary. The courts will continue to be open for administrative purposes.

The High Court has said it will not go on recess this December as local council elections are scheduled for January 18.

According to Article 172 of the constitution, individuals may contest any decision of the Election Commission relating to elections at the High Court.

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Police uncover 77.46 grams of narcotics buried on Malé City street

The Maldives Police Services have uncovered 77.46 grams of narcotics buried under paving bricks on Saibani Goalhi in Malé City.

The police blocked the street on a tip off and discovered 30 rubber packets, 77 small rubber packets, a photo film box and two folded cellophane pieces containing narcotics.

A large amount of rubber packets used to pack narcotics were also found in the area, police said.

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Maldives first amusement park opens in Gulhi Falhu

The Maldives’ first amusement park has opened on Malé City’s township island Gulhi Falhu on Friday.

The “Global Amusement Park” is an initiative of the Global Projects Development Company. The company is in charge of developing a high end “Global Green City” in Gulhi Falhu lagoon as an alternative to Malé City.

The amusement park will be open on every Friday and Saturday from 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm and a roller coaster ride, bumper car ride, luxury train ride, a merry go round and a chasing car ride.

Entry tickets cost MVR 20 and every ride costs between MVR 10 – 50. Ferry services from Malé City to Gulhi Falhu are free.

Manager of Global Projects Raj Maniyandan told local media the company intends to open a water park on Gulhi Falhu. He also said two beach villas are available for families who wish to stay overnight on the island.

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President to visit India on December 22

After receiving and invitation from Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, President Abdulla Yameen will make an official visit to the country on December 22.

Indian media has also reported that President Yameen will be the chief guest at the convocation of the SAARC-established South Asian University (SAU) on Dec 24.

The invitation came in reply to a letter by Yameen to the prime minister in which he assured Singh of his administration’s desire for enhanced bilateral ties and urged Singh to pay an official visit to the Maldives as soon as it was mutually convenient to do so.

Since taking office, President Yameen has stressed his desire to enhance recently-strained relations between the neighbouring countries.

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China offers Maldives US$8.2 million in grant aid: President’s Office

The President’s Office (PO) has announced China will give the Maldives 50 million yuan (US$8.2 million) in grant aid “for the implementation of developmental projects and the advancement of public services.”

The announcement was made following a meeting between Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon and President Abdulla Yameen with the Chinese Ambassador to the Maldives, Yu Hongyao.

The grant aid comes at a time the Maldives is facing dire economic circumstances, with the government unable to afford its huge recurrent expenditure on a bloated civil service and failing to pay millions of dollars owed to state-owned companies for services such as oil and electricity.

The State Trading Organisation (STO), the country’s main importer and wholesaler which brings in most of the Maldives’ basic commodities such as food and oil, warned of oil shortages in November after it was unable to pay a US$20 million debt to suppliers.

The central bank eventually bailed out the STO by drawing on the Maldives’ dwindling foreign currency reserves, but warned the country was on the verge of needing to print money, while state debt reached MVR 30 billion (US$1.9 billion).

The US$100 million fishing industry is about to be hit in 2014 by the decision of the country’s top export partner – Europe – refusing to extend the Maldives’ duty-free status due to its failure to ratify international conventions on freedom of religion and women’s rights.

The government this week said it would look to sell fish to the Arab and Malaysian markets by certifying Maldivian fish as ‘halal’.

The Maldives’ other major industry, tourism, meanwhile flat-lined in 2012 with the number of tourist bed nights falling 0.1 percent, even as annual arrivals continued to increase, this week topping one million.

The Tourism Ministry revealed that Chinese tourists now represented 30.8 percent of the total arrivals to the Maldives, the highest arrival from a single source market, however the Finance Ministry observed that this had not been matched with new revenue.

“As the most number of tourists to the country now come from China, we note that the low number of nights on average that a Chinese tourist spends in the Maldives has an adverse effect on the tourism sector’s GDP,” read the Finance Ministry’s ‘Fiscal and Economic Outlook: 2012 to 2016’ report.

The enthusiasm of the Maldives’ usual aid partners dwindled over two years of democratic uncertainty following President Mohamed Nasheed’s ousting by mutinying police in February 2012, while others – particularly Scandinavian countries lost interest once the Maldives graduated from ‘least developed’ to ‘middle income’ in 2011.

This was to some extent offset by extensive funding for climate change adaption and mitigation efforts across the country, ranging from waste management to desalination projects, that followed the Maldives’ grandstanding at international climate events.

President Yameen has pledged to tackle the Maldives’ economic woes by exploring and drilling for oil, as part of the Progressive Party of the Maldives (PPM) campaign pledges.

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MDP MP Ghafoor jailed as Supreme Court annuls parliamentary immunities

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has deplored the sudden jailing of its MP Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, despite promises of “leniency” from the government.

Ghafoor was sentenced in absentia to six months in prison for contempt of court, after failing to comply with police summons and evading authorities for almost a month by hiding in the parliament building.

Ghafoor contended that the court was deliberately scheduling hearings during critical votes and debates, violating the Parliamentary Privileges Act which requires MPs be allowed to be present during voting.

The Supreme Court on Thursday annulled several articles of the Privileges Act, declaring that this requirement was unconstitutional.

The Home Ministry then told local media that Ghafoor had been taken to Maafushi prison to serve his six month sentence, and would not be returned to Male for parliament sittings.

The Supreme Court in October stripped MDP-aligned MPs Ali Azim and Mohamed Nashiz of their seats, delivering the verdict in absentia in what the opposition labelled a “purge” of its majority. Azim was eventually arrested after the military stormed the parliament building and took him into custody.

The campaign of dismissals and imprisonment of opposition MPs reduces their lead in parliament ahead of critical votes on approval of President Yameen’s new cabinet ministers, as well as the passing of the government’s revised budget.

In a statement, the MDP condemned the jailing of its MP and spokesperson, noting that this came despite assurances from new Home Minister Umar Naseer that the government would treat the case with “leniency”.

“He was [initially] arrested in clear violation of the Parliamentary Privileges Act, which states that MPs cannot be arrested while a no-confidence motion against a government minister is pending,” the party stated.

“On Thursday the Maldives Supreme Court – an institution widely discredited as partisan in recent months – annulled the Parliamentary Privileges Act, in an apparent attempt to target MDP MPs such as Hamid,” it added.

MDP deputy chairperson Ali Shiyam observed that President Yameen, “who won the presidency in contested circumstances with 52% of the vote, said he would rule as a president for ‘all Maldivians’.”

“Sadly, within days of his presidency, the courts – which are de facto controlled by the executive – have started a witch-hunt against MDP MPs. This does not bode well for co-operation or compromise between the opposition and the ruling administration,” he said.

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Government eyes alternative fish export markets, Maldives fish to be labelled ‘halal’

The government has said that the Maldives will look to alternative fish export markets, including the middle-eastern and the Malaysian market, after withdrawing its application for European Union (EU) duty-free status of imported fish from the country.

Earlier this November, the EU declined to extend the duty-free status on Maldivian fish exports under its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program – a non-reciprocal trade agreement extended to developing countries – as the government had not ratified all 27 required international conventions.

During a press conference held by three cabinet ministers on Thursday afternoon, Foreign Minister Dhunya Maumoon told the press that the decision to withdraw the application for extension under the ‘GSP+’ program was because the government was informed by the EU’s Brussels mission that the application would possibly be rejected.

“The matter with EU’s relief of duty to Maldivian fisheries exports relate to our reservations towards freedom of religion and other conventions.  These reservations were taken because it contradicts the fundamentals of Islam and our constitution,” Dhunya explained.

“If we get rejected that means the Maldives is getting a bad label. Such a rejection would be informed to all European nations in the EU. So to avoid the dire circumstances of that, which would affect the country’s reputation, we have decided to withdraw our application,” she added.

EU officials earlier confirmed to Minivan News that the transitional period of trade concessions for the Maldives was due to expire as the Maldives from 2011 was not longer considered a developing country.

The Maldives applied for an extension under the ‘GSP+’ program, a unilateral trade concession given to a limited number of countries on the basis of good implementation of human rights and labour conventions, officials said.

Officials stated that the Maldives did not qualify due to the country’s reservations to ICCPR on religious freedom and CEDAW concerning women’s rights.

Under the Maldivian constitution all citizens are required to be Sunni Muslim and the practice of other religions is criminalised. Customs authorities forbid the import of religious items and scan the baggage of tourists arriving at the airport.

Foreign Minister Dhunya however described the withdrawal as a silver lining, elaborating on the fact that the country’s fisheries export should not be dependant upon just one single market.

“I make it clear that we are not running out of friends in the international community,” Dhunya said.

Counter Measures

In a bid to counter a the impact of the decision the government announced the formation of a Fisheries Promotion Board (FPB) that will work on promoting Maldivian fisheries products to none-EU markets.

“I believe, if we can promote our products through the Fisheries Promotion Board, we can overcome the difficulties we would face from this change of arrangements” said the new Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Dr Mohamed Shainee.

Secondly, the government announced that the Maldives’ fish products will be certified as a ‘Halal product’ in the future. Minister Shainee said that the government had been analysing other possible markets including middle-eastern markets and the Malaysian market.

“There are many markets around the world for us to export fisheries products. However, one of the main difficulties in penetrating such markets earlier was that we did not have a Halal certification on our products,” Shainee said.

“Today President Yameen has decided to give the legal mandate on issuing Halal certification to the Ministry of Islamic Affairs,” said Minister Shainee.

Minister Shainee also said that, although the Maldives will not be entitled to the GSP+ incentives, the fish exports to Europe will not come to a halt.

Rather, he described it as a change in the price of fish rather than an obstruction to exporting of Maldivian fisheries products.

“It is just that we will from now onwards be selling fish in a very competitive market,” Shainee said.

When inquired about involving foreign investors in developing the Maldivian Fisheries industry, Shainee said that the government did not wish to involve foreign investors as the fisheries sector formed part of Maldives’ primary industries and privatizing such could have detrimental effects on the economy.

The minister however said that that the government envisions diversification of the fisheries industry and the introduction of new forms of fishing that would further boost the industry.

“We want to diversify the market. There are varieties of sub-industries that we can develop including Mari-culture. However the government has not yet decided whether to seek foreign investments yet to develop those sub-industries,” Shainee said.

Meanwhile, the Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed said that apart from friendly Islamic countries and Malaysia, the government has held extensive talks with Russia and China regarding a possible entry into their markets.

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Parliament privileges committee seeks Majlis intervention in MP Hamid appeal case

The Majlis Parliamentary Privileges Committee has unanimously decided parliament should intervene in the appeal case of member Hamed Abdul Ghafoor, who was sentenced to six months for failure to attend Criminal Court hearings.

“The committee was of the opinion that the Criminal Court had acted outside of the boundaries of the law by summoning MP Hamid to court on a day when the parliament as well as committee sittings were scheduled,” said Deputy Chair of the Committee and Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Imthiyaz ‘Inthi’ Fahmy.

“Therefore this action by Criminal Court was clearly against the Privileges Act, thus a violation of privileges of both an MP and the parliament as a whole. On this grounds the committee has sent the report to Majlis Speaker to which the Speaker.”

Hamed was handed the custodial sentence during a month-long period of refuge sought within the grounds of parliament, which ended following the conclusion of the presidential election on November 16.

Hamed was originally asked to appear in court regarding an alleged refusal to produce a urine sample when asked by police following his arrest on suspicion of drug and alcohol possession last year.

He was arrested on the island of Hondaidhoo along with a number of senior MDP party members last year.

The MP himself, however, maintains that his stay in the parliamentary grounds was intended to highlight the importance of MP privileges.

“My holding up in the Majlis was in defense of parliamentary privileges, which was not reported in the media. We have found out members privileges are not understood,” Hamed told Minivan News today.

The Henveiru South representative suggested that Criminal Court Judge Abdulla Mohamed scheduled a hearing to clash with the parliamentary schedule as the case against him was failing.

He has subsequently been placed under house arrest, with the newly appointed Home Minister Umar Naseer telling local media that the state did not have the resources to transport the MP to and from Dhoonidhoo island prison in order for him to fulfil his parliamentary duties.

During his period of sanctuary, Hamed’s Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) amended the parliament’s standing orders to allow an MP convicted of criminal acts to continue to attend Majlis sittings.

Hamed, as well as the Speaker of the House Abdulla Shahid, have consistently maintained that the summons to appear clashed with the MP’s parliamentary duties, contravening the Parliamentary Privileges Act.

“He has been issued court summons in violation of the Privileges Act. He has been issued a sentence because he took the privileges he is legally afforded as an MP,” Shahid told Minivan News earlier this month.

“I have written about this matter to the Prosecutor General [PG]. The Prosecutor General agrees with me. He has written a letter to the Supreme Court. He feels that the judiciary in this case has gone out of its way to punish Hamid.”

The PG Ahmed Muiz has since resigned as the Majlis prepared no-confidence proceedings against him – the President’s Office is currently accepting applications for his replacement.

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Fornicating couple sentenced to 18 months jail, 25 lashes for self-made sex video

The Criminal Court has sentenced two consenting adults to 18 months in jail and 25 lashes for videoing themselves engaging in extramarital sex.

Aseel Ismail and Mariyam Sana were arrested in April 2011 after a police raid found CDs and photos in which the couple appear to engage in extramarital sex.

Aseel is currently serving a seven year jail term for assault and Sana is facing trial for drug abuse and alcohol consumption.

The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced the two to six months in jail and 25 lashes for fornication and issued an additional one-year jail term for producing pornographic material.

Meanwhile, renowned Quran reciter Hussain Thaufeeq has been sentenced to six months banishment and 15 lashes for sexually abusing children. However the Criminal Court suspended the sentence for three years, on the grounds it was the Qari’s first offence.

Thaufeeq was arrested in August 2010 on multiple charges of child sexual molestation with “some cases going a long time back,” police said at the time.

Thaufeeq’s students had also submitted a petition to the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) asking the commission to investigate the matter

Thaufeeq hosted a daily Quran teaching program on Television Maldives (TVM) for school children every evening after Isha prayers. He also led Friday prayers and conducted sermons.

He is also being charged with possession of pornographic material. The trial is still pending at the Criminal Court.

Under the Child Sex Offenders (Special Provisions) Act of 2009, the penalty for child sex abuse is 10-14 years but can be extended to 15-18 years if the accused was in a position of trust with the children he allegedly abused.

However, it appears Thaufeeq has been charged under a different regulation criminalising fornication and sexual misconduct.

The Criminal Court was not responding to calls at the time of press.

In August this year, a 15-year-old girl who faced 100 lashes after she was raped by her stepfather had her sentence overturned following an international campaign.

The Juvenile Court in September sentenced a 17 year old boy to four months in prison after he kissed a 16 year old girl in a court waiting room. The girl was sentenced to four months house arrest.

Meanwhile, a series of sex tapes in which Supreme Court Judge Ali Hameed appears to be having sex with several unidentified foreign women were leaked in July, but the judicial oversight body voted not to take any disciplinary action citing lack of evidence. The Judicial Services Commission (JSC) continues with the investigation.

According to a 2007 UN study, one in three women in the Maldives experience physical and /or sexual violence at some point in their lives. Further, one in eight women reported they had experienced childhood sexual abuse, the study said.

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