The Edition
facebook icon twitter icon instagram icon linkedin icon

Latest

EU urges Maldives not to implement the death penalty

Mohamed Visham
01 July 2016, MVT 23:28
Hussain Humam convicted of killing MP Dr Afrasheem Ali being led to the Supreme Court on June 20, 2016. MIHAARU PHOTO/MOHAMED SHARUHAAN
Mohamed Visham
01 July 2016, MVT 23:28

The European Union on Friday called on the Maldives to continue to apply the de facto moratorium on executions as the island nation forges ahead with implementing the death penalty for the first time in half a century.

Maldives overturned a six-decade-old moratorium on capital punishment with the adoption of a new regulation in 2014 that allows for the death penalty to be used to punish certain crimes.

Government on Wednesday amended capital punishment law to adopt hanging in addition to lethal injection as a method of execution as it ignored concerns by the opposition and international partners.

The government enacted the regulation, which makes provision for execution by lethal injection, for the crimes of premeditated murder or deliberate manslaughter.

But according to the new amendment authorities can adopt one of the two methods to execute convicts.

the Supreme Court last week upheld death sentence of a man convicted of MP Dr Afrasheem Ali’s murder on Friday.

The verdict delivered in the wee hours of Friday morning could make Hussain Humam Ahmed the first person to be executed in the Maldives for more than 50 years.

The EU in a statement reiterates its absolute opposition to capital punishment in all cases and restates its commitment to the worldwide abolition of the death penalty.

"The European Union is opposed to capital punishment in all cases and without exception," the statement by the EU spokesperson read.

The statement also described the death penalty as a cruel and inhumane punishment, which fails to deter criminal behaviour and which represents a grave denial of human dignity and integrity.

"Any miscarriage of justice – which is inevitable in any legal system – is irreversible," spokesperson said in the statement.

"The European Union calls on the Government of the Maldives to continue to apply the de facto moratorium on executions as a first step towards its abolition."

The Supreme Court verdict came after a request made by Afrasheem’s family to hold off on the death penalty for Humam.

In a letter to the chief justice hours before the ruling, the father and brother of the late MP cited an incomplete murder investigation in retracting their earlier wish for the death penalty for his killer.

The family in the letter said Humam remains a key witness in identifying those who planned and funded the murder.

“The police had earlier said there are people who planned and funded [the murder of Dr Afrasheem]. Not knowing who they are, and what has been investigated about them, and because I believe Hussain Humam Ahmed’s word is needed to clear these doubts, we do not want qisas to be carried out against Humam until the investigation is complete,” said the letter, signed by Dr Afrasheem’s father Ali Zafir and brother Abdul Nasir Ali.

The unanimous ruling rejected defence’s claim of mental illness, and upheld the guilty verdict, noting the 22 year old had confessed to the murder at the lower court on two separate occasions.

The chief justice also highlighted the fact that Humam had not sought the final appeal on his own also proved that he had accepted the High Court ruling.

Humam had confessed to killing Afrasheem during a remand hearing. When the case reached the court, he retracted the confession, claiming his confession had been coerced.

Afrasheem’s body was discovered brutally stabbed to death in the stairwell of his home on October 2, 2012.

Maldives opposition has also expressed grave concern over the government rushing to impose the death penalty at a time when the public has lost trust in the justice system.

Share this story

Related Stories

Discuss

MORE ON NEWS