Supreme Court quashes Naifaru woman’s death sentence

The Supreme Court of the Maldives has quashed a magistrate court verdict of death by stoning, passed against a woman for extramarital sex.

The apex court said in a statement on Monday that the verdict, which refers to the penal code, violates the Sexual Offenses Act, passed in 2014.

Magistrate Judge Mohamed Moosa passed the sentence in absentia solely based on the woman’s confession; that she had committed fornication and had once before been married.

The case was reported to the police in May of last year by the health center after they delivered the woman’s child, believed to have been conceived in the ‘unlawful sexual act’, the sentence says.

The sentence makes no mention of the child's father, although RaajjeMV understands that he is native to an island in the same atoll and the family has 'no way to contact' him.