Parliament to review death penalty for trafficking this term

Attorney General Ahmed Usham said today that the government is working to amend the Drugs Act to include capital punishment for those convicted of smuggling drugs into Maldives.

The bill is expected to be finalized and submitted to Parliament within the current legislative session, he said.

The Drugs Act Amendment Bill was first submitted to Parliament late last year and is currently under review by relevant committees.

While the initial draft included provisions for the death penalty, these were omitted when the bill was officially sent to parliament.

However, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu said last night that he wants to introduce stricter penalties, including the death sentence, for drug traffickers. He has directed authorities to study the bill further to align it with this objective.

Attorney General Usham stated that the police, the Prosecutor General’s Office and other relevant institutions have submitted their comments on the bill.

“We are working to finalize the amendments and resubmit the revised version to Parliament within a week,” he said.

In a post shared on X, President Muizzu said that he intends to set stricter penalties including the death penalty for drug traffickers, as is practiced in several other countries.

The President emphasized that a key objective of the government is to cultivate a drug-free generation and eliminate the societal harms caused by drugs.

Under current Maldivian law, the punishment for drug trafficking is life imprisonment and a fine ranging from MVR 100,000 to MVR 10 million. The death penalty is only permitted in cases of intentional homicide. Although several inmates remain on death row, Maldives has not carried out an execution since 1953, maintaining an effective moratorium.

On 20 December 2023, a month after President Muizzu took office, Home Minister Ali Ihusan announced the government’s intention to begin implementing the death penalty.

Speaking to Mihaaru News, he stated that all necessary steps would be taken within the framework of Maldivian laws and regulations.

Nearly a year later, Ihusan said that preparations were under way to enforce the death penalty.

He said that any such move must adhere to international standards, including the exhaustion of all judicial processes, due to the irreversible nature of capital punishment.

United Nations Human Rights Review conducted last year acknowledged that the Maldives is an Islamic country, and that its laws would be applied in accordance with Islamic principles.

If passed, the new amendments would make the Maldives the second South Asian country after Singapore to actively enforce the death penalty for drug trafficking.

While Sri Lanka’s law also prescribes the death penalty for drug trafficking, the country currently maintains an unofficial moratorium on its enforcement.