Former Attorney General Dhiyana Saeed has responded to Legal Affairs Minister Azima Shakoor’s comments on Tuesday about how Maldives’ apex court does not have the legal authority to quash former president Mohamed Nasheed’s conviction.
Azima, who herself was attorney general before being ousted through a parliamentary vote in 2013, said during an interview with state broadcaster, Public Service Media, that the Nasheed’s conviction is ‘sealed’ and not even appeals of miscarriage of justice can have the case reopened.
Azima said that the Supreme Court had decided on Nasheed’s conviction and that it cannot be reopened in any court of law, including the top court itself, as Maldives’ constitution and legal framework does not allow for it.
“There are legal systems that allow for it. But according to laws of the Maldives, the matter is sealed and no amount of orders and rulings later can change it. Not even the Supreme Court has authority to do so” Azima said.
Dhiyana, who has been immensely vocal in support of the allied opponents of President Abdulla Yameen and his administration, said that the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, not only gives the court authority to do so but makes it a legal obligation. Maldives’ uni-cameral parliament passed the Covenant and longstanding president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom ratified it in 2006.
She refers to Article 14, clause six, of the Covenant, which says ‘when a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to law’.
Azima also said that Nasheed, who has announced his bid for presidency and is campaigning in his Maldivian Democratic Party’s primary elections, will not be allowed to run. In April, the UN Human Rights Committee had demanded that President Yameen ensure that the Nasheed’s conviction is repealed and he is allowed to contest the elections.
