Lamha promised to save Marvin: witness

Haleemath Lamha, one of the two accused in the murder of Mary Grace Oned Pineda, a Filipino nurse who worked in the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) in Malé City, told that she would save Marvin S. Y. Vargas, the other individual accused of committing the murder, a witness told the court today.

Prosecutors charged Marvin, also a nurse at IGMH and the husband of Mary Grace, along with Lamha, who also worked at the same hospital as Mary and Marvin. Authorities believe that Lamha and Marvin were having an affair, and colluded in murdering Mary in October, 2021.

In the ongoing case at the Criminal Court, Marvin stands charged with intentional homicide, while Lamha is charged with knowingly participating in murder as well as unauthorized possession of another party's property.

The second charge against Lamha is for being in possession of medication which can only be used within hospital premises.

In a hearing held today, a nurse who worked at IGMH testified in the case.

According to the witness, Lamha went to the area where Mary's body was brought to at the hospital and asked if Marvin would be legally safe in the case. With nail marks on Marvin's body, Lamha said Marvin wouldn't be safe and asked if they knew a senior official at Maldives Police Service, the witness said.

Lamha also said that she would be the one to save Marvin, the witness further added.

According to the witness, they didn't like Lamha very much and kept her in a different area from where they worked. Given how Lamha treated patients at the hospital, they also did not allow her to come to the same area while on duty, the witness said.

In their statement, the witness went on to detail that although Marvin first claimed that Mary had hanged herself from a fan, he later stated that she had hanged herself from a window. The nurse further mentioned that when questioned about the inconsistency in his accounts, Marvin asked for some time to explain.

The witness also stated that there were no marks on Mary's body that would indicate that she hanged herself, added that even at that point, Marvin had not told them what had happened.

The court will continue to take the statements of additional witnesses in the coming days.

In early June, authorities revealed that there were still 15 witnesses scheduled to give their statements in court, including doctors who had prepared important documents related to the case.

At the time, prosecutors responded to concerns raised by defendants regarding delays in collecting these statements. They explained that the delays were due to some witnesses being foreign nationals who now reside abroad. Under new foreign policy guidelines, prosecutors are required to obtain formal approval from the foreign government before collecting statements from these witnesses.

Mary's Murder: Foreign policy delaying foreign witness statements, defense voices concerns

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