05 April 2017 :

The criminal court sentenced two men to death after handing down guilty verdicts over the murder of 25-year-old Ahmed Mirza Ibrahim in April 2011.
Abdulla Nazeef, from the Zavia house in Gnaviyani Fuvahmulah, and Mohamed Shifau, from the Fazeelamanzil house in Vilimalé, were convicted of murder based on eyewitness testimony.
Delivering the verdict, Chief Judge Abdul Bari Yousuf reportedly said the testimony proves that Mirza was assaulted in a revenge attack.
The medico-legal report shows that he died of injuries sustained in the assault, the judge said.
He also noted that Mirza’s heirs have asked for the death penalty. Under Maldivian law and Islamic sharia, the principle of qisas or retaliation in kind allows the family to either demand the death penalty, ask for blood money, or pardon the killer.
A third defendant, Ali Rishfan, from the Bakuruge house in Gaaf Dhaal Gahdhoo, was meanwhile found not guilty. A minor charged in connection with the murder was also acquitted by the juvenile court in November 2012.
Ahmed Mirza Ibrahim was assaulted with iron bars on April 11, 2011 at a children’s park in Vilimalé, an island near Malé that is considered an administrative ward of the capital.
He was declared brain-dead by doctors at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital and passed away three days later due to severe head injuries.
Five suspects were arrested and four of them, including a minor, were charged with murder.
The defendants have been in police custody since April 2011 and the trial was stalled over failure to summon key witnesses. Judge Bari later took over the case from the former chief judge who was demoted to the family court in February 2016.
If the guilty verdicts are upheld by both the high court and supreme court, Nazeef and Shifau will join three convicts presently on death row.