Tag: maldives

MDP Parliamentary Group calls for dismissal of MMA Governor

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Parliamentary Group has called on the President to remove the Governor of the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Fazeel Najeeb from his position, accusing him of irresponsibility and “repeatedly failing to fulfill his legal obligations”.

In a statement, the Party said that the MMA Governor was legally required to not pursue any work other than that required of his role in the MMA.

”However because he is currently studying he spends most of the time out of the country,” said the MDP in a statement. ”Although the laws on MMA obligate the Governor to council the President on the financial condition of the country, the instruction and council is not being given to the president.”

The party claimed that Fazeel was not cooperating with the government to find a solution for the difficulty in bringing foreign currency to the country.

The statement explained that the Governor of the MMA is appointed and dismissed by the President with the council of the parliament, according to MMA Act, Act No 81/6 article 6 [3].

On 10 November last year, MDP Parliamentary group said the Finance Ministry had written to the Governor asking for steps the MMA would recommend be taken to resolve the foreign currency issue.

”But he never responded to the letter. The Finance Ministry wrote to the Governor again on January 16 of this year and he responded to the letter on 10 February,” claimed the MDP Parliamentary group, “but he did not mention how the issue might be solved.”

The parliamentary group further accused Fazeel of using the MMA’s credit card “for his own purposes.”

Minivan News attempted to contact Fazeel to respond to the MDP’s allegations, however his phone was switched off. Spokesperson for the MMA Ahmed Naseer told Minivan News that Fazeel was currently not in the Maldives and was unavailable for comment.

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Maldives trounced in second-leg Olympic qualifier

Hong Kong soundly saw off the Maldives yesterday for a place in the second round of the Asian football qualifying matches for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, scoring three goals that allowed them ultimately to finish 7-0 victors over the course of two matches.

Three goals, all scored within the first half of the second leg match, allowed Hong Kong to confidently move into the next round of qualifiers to be drawn against other victorious teams from the around region at the end of the month.

Already four goals down from their first encounter in Hong Kong, any hopes for a Maldivian comeback were extinguished within twenty minutes of yesterday’s game when Lam Hok Hei netted his first goal of the match. Stephen Ha added to the score line four minutes later and a third was later claimed by Lam in the closing minutes of the first half.

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Civil Court overturns dismissal of female badminton champion from national team

Female badminton champion Neela Ahmed Najeeb has won the right to be reinstated in the national badminton team, after the Civil Court yesterday overturned the Badminton Association’s termination of Najeeb.

Chief Judge of the Civil Court Ali Sameer ruled that the Association’s termination of Najeeb on May 20, 2009, was against the Association’s own regulations, and ordered it to reinstate her within seven days.

Najeeb, formerly the only female badminton player on the national team, holds a string of championship medals and has competed in several international competitions. The 25 year-old was suspended from playing last year after clashing with her Indonesian coach, whom she alleged attempted to make her run for four hours as punishment for missing a training session – something she was physically unable to do at the time.

Najeeb and her lawyer Mizna Shareef of Shah, Hussein & Co, contended in court that Najeeb’s suspension contradicted the termination procedure of the Constitution of the Badminton Association, as she was not given a chance to defend herself.

“I think this must be personal – this is not what you do to an athlete. You don’t just terminate them,” Najeeb told Minivan News, in an earlier interview. “I think Maldivian players deserve better. If you have a problem with a coach, [sporting associations] are supposed to advise you – but the Badminton Association takes everything personally.”

Prior to her termination, Najeeb had been selected to travel to Greece on June 10, 2010 for a youth training session conducted by the International Olympic Committee, however this was scuttled by her dismissal as endorsement from the Association was required.

“Our argument was that Neela’s termination contravened the Association’s constitution,” Najeeb’s lawyer Shareef said today. “They argued that Neela was not terminated but suspended, following a meeting in October. But we have letter from May saying she was terminated – you can’t suspend someone you’ve already terminated, and the court saw right through it.”

Shareef speculated that Najeeb’s case could be the first time a Maldivian athlete has successful contested a case against a sporting association.

President of the Badminton Association Ali Amir said he was unable to comment on the outcome of the case as he had yet to be informed of it.

Najeeb meanwhile said she was looking forward to competing in the Maldives International Challenge in June.

“I think things will be different from now on. I want to get back to the Association and see my next target,” she said.

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Forty percent of women between the age of 15-25 are unemployed, says HRCM

The Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) has published a report revealing that more than two thirds of the Maldivian population are unemployed, with only 110,000 of the country’s 350,000 population holding paid jobs.

Women are particularly affected, HRCM noted, with women holding only 37 percent  of those jobs. Forty percent of women between the age of 15-25 are unemployed, HRCM stated.

Of the 124 senior government positions, women filled 28 positions, HRCM noted. Females also hold 12.5 percent of roles in independent commissions, 3.85 percent in parliament, 1.9 percent in the judiciary, 2.3 percent in the military, and 1.6 percent in the police force.

“The government should give high priority to training [women] and conducting awareness programs to make women more active in employment,’’ said HRCM. ‘’It is necessary that there are job opportunities for females in the islands and opportunities for females to train for jobs at atoll and island level.’’

“Our goal is to establish a society where women and men are equal in civil, political, economic, social and cultural fields. The commission calls on everyone to give women equal opportunities in every area of life.”

HRCM also noted that women were outperforming men at school, but this was not reflected in their employment or positions in society.

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BBC team detained, tortured by Gaddafi forces

Three BBC journalists covering the civil unrest in Libya were arrested and tortured by forces loyal to President Muammar Gaddafi, before being subjected to a mock execution.

Soldiers fired shots past the heads of the journalists, and they were made to wear hoods and told they were to be killed. At one stage the journalists were held in a cage while Libyan captives around them them were tortured. All journalists were in the country with permission of the Libyan government.

Describing the other prisoners, Turkish cameraman Goktay Koraltan said “I cannot describe how bad it was. Most of them were hooded and handcuffed really tightly, all with swollen hands and broken ribs. They were in agony. They were screaming.”

UK national Chris Cobb-Smith said the three journalists were lined up facing a wall while a man put a submachine gun next to their necks and pulled the trigger.

A Palestinian reporter for BBC Arabic, Feras Killani, was interrogated and then taken to a carpark where he was beaten with a pipe and a long stick. Killani then had a mask taped to his face through which he struggled to breathe.

After the BBC and the UK Foreign Office intervened, a Libyan man “who spoke perfect Oxford English” arrived and signed the paperwork to release the three reporters.

“They took us to their rest room. It was a charm offensive, packets of cigarettes, tea, coffee, offers of food,” the reporters said.

The BBC team had been covering a battle 30 miles from the Libyan capital when they were arrested at a checkpoint.

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Municipality civil servant first to be suspended in Facebook blackmail scandal

A senior civil servant working at Male’ Municipality has been suspended by the Civil Service Commission (CSC), reportedly in connection with one of the explicit videos obtained by police from a Facebook blackmail ring.

CSC Commissioner Fahmy Hassan confirmed to Minivan News that the civil servant had been suspended pending an investigation into the offending video, which had been leaked to the internet and reported to the CSC.

“We do not have knowledge of how the video was released, or whether he was being blackmailed,” Fahmy said.

Fahmy noted that there had been previous such incidences that prompted investigations, and these were occasionally unproven.

Police arrested 14 people involved in the alleged Facebook blackmail ring last month, in which profiles featuring an attractive blonde woman in sunglasses were reportedly used to extract explicit photos and videos from those who befriended her. Almost 3000 people – mostly Maldivian – befriended the various fraudulent profiles, with names like “Angelic Sharrown” and “Lyshiaa Limanom”.

”While some of the pictures were taken of people while drunk, other pictures were taken without the consent of the persons,” police said, when the arrests were announced.

Some of the people in the videos appeared to be performing explicit acts in the presence of minors, police said, adding that this could lead to further investigations of those pictured.

”The case relates to the rights of many citizens and affects the social policy of the Maldives, and may also affect the safety of the society,” said police at the time.

Information gathered so far had revealed that people from all levels of Maldivian society were affected, “including underage females juveniles, young women, professional and semi-professional persons, and people of both genders working all across the country.”

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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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