One of the biggest mistakes Maldives can make is to re-introduce the death penalty, a Maldives-born top official at the United Nations said Saturday.
Dr Ahmed Shaheed on Twitter labelled the move to re-introduce the death penalty after a 60-year moratorium as a big mistake.
In an earlier Tweet, Shaheed, who serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran, said the decision made by former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom not to execute the 22 people sentenced to death over the 1988 attempted coup was the "noblest by a Maldivian politician."
The case seeking to annul the clause in the Clemency Act, which gives the president the power to turn death sentences into life imprisonment, was filed privately by a group of individuals.
The case heard by the 5-judge bench of the appellate court was filed in 2012.
The court ruled that the president cannot grant clemency to convicts on death row in Qisas cases but would be able to exercise the power on other cases involving a death sentence.
Maldives has also recently adopted a series of new rules and regulations and is currently drafting a law on death penalty.
The Supreme Court issued new guidelines recently allowing death sentences and public lashing rulings issued by lower courts to be appealed automatically at the High Court.
In a circular, the Supreme Court said if the defendant fails to appeal death sentences and public lashing verdicts within 10 days, the court that had initially issued the verdict should forward the relevant documents to the High Court. The appellate court would have seven days to notify both the defendant and the prosecution of the appeal and during that period should take the necessary steps to begin appeal proceedings, it added.
The new rules follow similar guidelines issued by the apex court early last month.
The Supreme Court issued new guidelines on November 8 giving a month-long window for the last chance to appeal death sentences and public lashings backed by High Court.
The guidelines, included in a circular signed by Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed, did not specifically mention sentences of death and public lashing. However, it says that High Court rulings that need to be reconfirmed by the Supreme Court had to be appealed within 30 days, including public holidays.
Under local laws, the only sentences that need to be reconfirmed by the Supreme Court are death sentences and public lashing verdicts.
Judicature Act earlier granted a 90-day period, excluding public holidays, to appeal rulings by any court.
However, the Supreme Court had in January annulled that clause and issued new guidelines under which rulings issued by lower courts had to be appealed at the High Court within 10 days and appeal over High Court verdicts needed to be filed at the Supreme Court within 60 days.
The state budget for next year, which was approved by the parliament last month, includes MVR4 million to build an execution chamber.
Maldives adopted a new regulation last year under which lethal injection would be used to implement the death penalty.
However, over mounting pressure from human rights bodies, companies have been refusing to supply the fatal dose to countries still carrying out capital punishment.
Home minister Umar Naseer had earlier said the correctional service would be ready to implement the death penalty by the time a death sentence is upheld by the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the government announced on November 16 that it was in the process of drafting legislation on implementing death penalty.
Attorney General Mohamed Anil told reporters that the bill being drafted by his office would expand on the already existing regulations on death penalty. The bill would include procedures on conducting murder investigations, filing charges in such cases and conducting proceedings in murder cases, he added.
There are around 10 people on death row at present, but none of whom has exhausted the appeal process thus far.
Source: haveeru.com, December 13, 2015
