Justice must be served without becoming emotional: Chief Justice

Chief Justice Ahmed Muthasim Adnan stated that in serving justice, even though judges work with sincerity, they must avoid emotional involvement.

Speaking at the oath taking ceremony of magistrates held last Thursday, the Chief Justice said that he had come to the ceremony while there was a short time left to serve a judgement in a major case.

The case in question is that of Mariyam Nazaha, who appealed her conviction of murdering her ex-husband and the subsequent life sentence. In the case, Nazaha's life sentence was upheld by a three judge majority at the Supreme Court.

The Chief Justice said that he had had a restless sleep the night before out of concern for the judgement in the case.

"I was awake from 12 to 2 [that] night. What did I do? I thought [about the case]. Nothing else," he said.

"The verdict had already been written. There was nothing much left to say and nothing to add to it. But, I thought about the judgement and since it is a big case, I stayed awake in bed till 2am considering both sides of the argument," he said.

He said that he had even sent a message to a messaging group of all the judges. However, he then deleted it realizing it was very late.

"So, what I am saying is, this is the hard part in this. What we have to consider here is, while judgements are made on the spot, we have to delve into it and consider whether this is justice," the Chief Justice said.

"Even though we are sincere in this, we must avoid becoming emotional," he stated.

Nazaha's life sentence was upheld at the Supreme Court by Judge Dr Azmiralda Zahir, Judge Ali Rasheed and the Chief Justice himself. Judge Aisha Shujune and Judge Dr Mohamed Ibrahim dissented.