Maldives comes under fire for death penalty, and free speech crackdown
Wed Aug 10, 2016 12:18:pm World
2.3K By sosa hills
The United Nations' human rights chief is urging the Maldives to stick to a decades long moratorium on imposing the death penalty, citing fears that three men are at "imminent risk" of execution.
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement issued in Geneva on Tuesday that the Maldives long provided "important leadership" in efforts to end the use of the death penalty and it is "deeply regrettable that a series of steps have been taken to resume executions in the country."
President Abdulla Yameen is under fire at home and abroad
But he went on to say that it was "deeply regrettable that a series of steps have been taken to resume executions in the country."
A country with an estimated population below 400,000 people, the Maldives has 17 people on death row. Three are potentially imminent, including convictions against a 22-year-old man, Ahmed Murrath, and his partner Fathimath Hana.
Both have been convicted in the stabbing death of a prominent member of parliament in 2012. The country's Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty against Murrath in June. Shortly before this court decision, the government amended its rules to allow the death penalty by lethal injection or hanging. Former Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon, the president's niece and a former leader's daughter, cited this issue when resigning from her post in July.
The Maldives suspended the death penalty in 1954, converting all such sentences to life in prison.
Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said in a statement issued in Geneva on Tuesday that the Maldives long provided "important leadership" in efforts to end the use of the death penalty and it is "deeply regrettable that a series of steps have been taken to resume executions in the country."
President Abdulla Yameen is under fire at home and abroad
But he went on to say that it was "deeply regrettable that a series of steps have been taken to resume executions in the country."
A country with an estimated population below 400,000 people, the Maldives has 17 people on death row. Three are potentially imminent, including convictions against a 22-year-old man, Ahmed Murrath, and his partner Fathimath Hana.
Both have been convicted in the stabbing death of a prominent member of parliament in 2012. The country's Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty against Murrath in June. Shortly before this court decision, the government amended its rules to allow the death penalty by lethal injection or hanging. Former Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon, the president's niece and a former leader's daughter, cited this issue when resigning from her post in July.
The Maldives suspended the death penalty in 1954, converting all such sentences to life in prison.
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