Taxi driver's murder: Adham sentenced to death

Adhuham Mohamed charged with first-degree murder in connection with the murder of  taxi driver Gasim Hassan has been sentenced to death.

The hearing to discuss and determine the sentence of the case was held on Sunday.

During the hearing, Judge Ali Nadeem said the punishment for the offense was death. However, the judge said the death penalty would not be carried out if Gasim's heirs pardoned him at any stage before the execution.

Prior to this hearing, a hearing to take statements of Gasim’s heirs was held at the Criminal Court.

During Sunday's hearing, the court proved that Gasim had five children by the time of he was murderd. His wife and parents were not alive when he was murdered.

Four of Gasim's sons and his daughter, stated that they seek the death penalty for his murder.

The decision was made by Gasim's heirs after the prosecution explained the decisions they can make in connection with Ziyadham’s murder. As such, the prosecution explained that the heirs have the option of seeking death for his murder, not seeking death and accepting compensation for his death, or not seeking either death or compensation for his murder.

Speaking at the hearing, Adham apologized to all the heirs and said he had done it while under the influence of drugs. He said it was not an attack he had planned and that he did not attack Gasim intentionally. Adham said that it wasn’t because it was Gasim in particular either.

Speaking on the punishment, the prosecution asked the court to impose the death penalty on Adham.

Speaking about the punishment, Adham's lawyer noted that Adham pleaded guilty even though he retracted it later on and then pleaded guilty again after he withdrew from his confession. The lawyer went onto say that Adham is apologizing and asking for forgiveness.

Judge Ali Nadheem, who is presiding over the murder case has highlighted that although Adham had spoken differently about how he attacked Gasim on several occasions during the investigation, he had admitted to stabbing him.

The judge has said that the DNA found in the car and the DNA found in the knife matched Adhuham's DNA.

Adhuham was arrested on 19 December 2019, after Gasim’s dead body was discovered lying face-down in a puddle of blood on the road in Hulhumalé on 4 December 2019.

Police earlier confirmed that Adhuham has a long criminal history including theft and cases related to drugs.