Four Sentenced To Death Over 2006 Murder

Four Sentenced To Death Over 2006 Murder

Four men were sentenced to death on Tuesda over the gang-related murder of Mohamed Shihab, 20, in Gaaf Alif atoll Maamendhoo in July 2006.

Fariyaaz Ahmed, Ali Masoud Saeed, Mohamed Shifraz and Mohamed Gasim were handed down the death sentence after the victim’s family rejected the alternative offer of blood money available under Shari’ah law.

But lawyers for both sides said there was little chance of the sentence being implemented, with no executions carried out in the Maldives since 1953.

Murder

Shihab, of Gaaf Alif atoll Villingilli, was beaten by a group of men on Gaaf Alif Maamendhoo after collecting sea cucumbers with a group of people from the nearby island of Fares Mathodaa.

The beating caused severe injuries to his brain and spine, and despite being airlifted to a Malé hospital, he died after three days in a coma.

State attorney Hussein Shameem, who represented the state in the early hearings of the case, said there was “a history of violence between the families” of victim and perpetrators.

Mohamed Shifraz confessed to having taken part in the murder, but later retracted his confession, whilst eight witnesses testified to seeing the four men beat Shihab.

A fifth man, Mohamed Jamshad, was acquitted of conspiracy to murder. He had been accused of luring Shihab to the island where he died, a place the victim rarely travelled because gang and family rivalries made him a “target”, Shameem said.

But there was “not enough evidence” to convict Jamshad. “No one wants to give evidence against these people, because they are gangsters,” Shameem added.

Death Penalty

Shihab’s family opted to request the death penalty, rather than “blood money”, the alternative under Islamic Shari’ah law.

In the Maldives, the families of murder victims more often opt for “blood money”, which the state caps at Rf100,000 (US $7,812). Its award to the family is generally accompanied by a 25-year jail sentence for the murderer.

But when the death penalty is handed down – most recently in 2003 – the President, who heads the judiciary, generally commutes the sentence to life in jail, which in Maldives equals a 25-year sentence.

However under the country’s new constitution, which is expected to be ratified on 7 August, the President will have “extremely limited powers of pardon,” Shameem notes. The new legal regime will separate the executive from the judiciary.

But defence lawyer Shaheem Ahmed told Minivan News, “Whatever happens, there is no death penalty in the Maldives...People get their sentence reduced to 25 years, months after their conviction. So I think it will be the same this time.”

The death penalty was last carried out in the country in 1953, during the rule of the country’s first president, Mohamed Amin Didi.

Hakeem Didi was shot dead on Hulhulé island – now the site of Malé International Airport – after being convicted of killing the Atoll Chief of Huvadhoo atoll (now Gaaf Alif and Gaaf Dhaal) by using black magic.