Criminal Court on Monday fined a speedboat captain with MVR 116,200 after finding him guilty of negligent homicide, over the deaths of two tourists in a marine accident that took place on December 17, 2015.
Ibrahim Nasir was charged after a diving speedboat he captained collided with a dhoni (Maldivian boat) near Maafushi, Kaafu Atoll, killing two of the six tourists aboard the latter.
Although Nasir faced a possible imprisonment sentence of one year, seventh months and six days, Judge Hassan Najeeb changed his sentence to a penalty after considering the circumstances of the incident and defendant. His verdict highlighted that Nasir did not harbour intentions of deliberating endangering the victims, and that this was his first conviction.
As per the court ruling, Nasir's diving speedboat 'Sunlit 1' and the dhoni 'Farihi 1' both had their navigational lights on when the collision occurred around 1830 hours, after sundown. However, the verdict noted that the diving boat was speeding and that the captain was using only the GPS for navigation without keeping a lookout over the sea.
The verdict further stated that the diving boat's crew had seen the dhoni's navigational lights, and that the dhoni could not have evaded the speedboat due to the latter's speed.
The victims were a 16-year-old Malaysian girl and 42-year-old Chinese national. There were four people aboard the diving boat but they did not suffer serious injuries.
The judge ordered Nasir to settle the penalty within a period of five months.
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