Shareef, senior advisor to Yameen and head
of foreign relations for the ruling Progressive
Party of Maldives (PPM) further stated public
support for the death penalty as reason to
resume executions:
‘At the moment, overwhelmingly the
people of Maldives are in support for
implementation. It is a dif cult decision
for any government. But as a
government, you have to safeguard the
lives of innocent people.’ (ibid.)
The announcement of the resumption of
executions was accompanied by the
development of an execution chamber in
Maafushi Prison, at a cost of over MVR 4
million (£207,000). The construction of a
second execution chamber was announced
in 2017.
In November 2018, however, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs announced that a 65-year
moratorium on the death penalty would be
maintained by the new administration under
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih. This
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Maafushi Prison, on Kaafu Atoll (Sun Online)
announcement brought signi cant criticism
towards the current government from both
religious scholars and the general public,
highlighting the lack of public will for the
abolition of the death penalty in the
Maldives.
The upcoming presidential elections have
seen a renewed discussion of the death
penalty over recent months. In May 2023,
Mohamed Nazim, President of the Maldives
National Party, made a statement in which he
expressed concern over the declining value
of human life within Maldivian society,
referencing rising murder rates and
subsequent widowed individuals and
orphaned children as a ‘distressing
consequence’ of a supposedly dysfunctional
justice system. Nazim emphasised the
'imperative of prioritising the safety and wellbeing of the populace by proposing the
implementation of capital
punishment’ (Jaleel 2023).
It remains to be seen what changes may
occur in the next political season.