Sumon Mia, charged in connection to the murder of Lh. Hinnavaru native Ismail Umar, has been slapped with the death penalty.

A hearing in the murder trial was carried out on Wednesday, during which the court found the Bangladeshi national guilty of murder.

Following this, witness testimonies were taken from the victim’s heirs, all three of whom expressed desire for the death penalty to be imposed on Mia.

Presiding judge Ali Adam sentenced the Bangladeshi national to death shortly after.

The summary statement in connection to the case was heard at the Criminal Court on March 3.

Mia was charged with deliberate murder with a sharp weapon and he had confessed to the heinous crime during the preliminary stage. However, as the suspect had the opportunity to take back his confession, the state had requested for the witness testimonies to be collected and to collect a detailed statement from Mia on how things unfolded.

As such, Mia told the judges bench that although Umar had employed him, he had refused to pay him for overtime and obstructed him from contacting his spouse. Mia is to have stated that on top of making him work relentlessly for a long period of time, Umar had allegedly abused him. The Bangladeshi national revealed that he decided to end Umar’s life after his marriage reached the point of divorce due to being unable to contact his wife.

The suspect is to have claimed that his in-laws had been pushing him to divorce his spouse as he was unable to give her time.

From this point, Mia fled and began living in a separate address. Mia admitted to having entered Umar’s room carrying a 12-inch knife and nylon ropes one night and proceeding to strangle him. However, Umar woke up and began fighting back, with which Mia stated he resorted to violence using the sharp weapon.

After attacking and killing Umar, Mia had attempted to flee to another island after arranging for transport through a friend.

Mia is to have returned to Umar’s room later, after leaving him there that night, to drag his body to a salt water tank in the area. He is to have dumped a bucket of water into Umar’s room, taken all of his money and departed the island right away.

He paid for the speedboat ride from the island through Umar’s money, and even used the money to pay for his transfer to the capital city. However, this attempt was foiled and Mia was arrested before he could depart to Malé City.

Mia had confessed to the crime and stated that he confessed without any coercion. He upheld his confession statement.

The officers to inspected Umar’s body revealed that the body was covered in deep wounds including his back and neck. Umar’s body was discovered with the rope tied around his neck, inside the ice plant. Officers who collected material evidence revealed that the knife that was used to slay Umar was found inside an ice box inside the ice plant.

Further, officers revealed that the DNA of the finger prints scanned at the scene of the crime matched that of Mia’s.

State prosecutors asserted that all the evidence points to the fact that Mia is guilty of the crime.

During his confession, Mia accused police officers of assaulting him. However, he first confessed to the murder while he was in police custody in Kulhudhuffushi City and he had only met the officers he accused of assaulting him, later on.

The state prosecutors stressed that Mia had not mentioned he was assaulted, the whole time he was in custody and had even requested the court to prove him guilty as all evidence backs this claim.