MALDIVES: TWO MINORS SENTENCED TO DEATH

May 2, 2013: two teenagers were sentenced to death by the Juvenile Court in Maldives after being convicted of murder committed when they were under 18. The death sentence for the two was the first in the history of the Juvenile Court. They were accused in the stabbing murder of Abdul 'Bobby' Muheeth on 19 February 2012, while he was sitting on a motorcycle in a blind alley opposite the Ministry of Finance. He died of his injuries hours later.
A Juvenile Court official had said the two were convicted based on witness statements, phone call recordings and CCTV footage. A third minor was acquitted of the charges over a lack of evidence. All 26 heirs of the victim had earlier asked the court for the death penalty.
Maldives is a State Party to two UN treaties, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which forbid capital punishment for crimes committed by persons below 18 years of age. (Sources: sun.mv, 02/05/2013)