JUSTICE SYSTEM IN THE MALDIVES
The legal system in the Maldives is Islamic law (sharia) with English common law influences, primarily in commercial matters. Customary punishments such as banishment are common and have has been practiced in Maldives for centuries. The government metes out punishments such as floggings and banishment to remote islands. Both practices are controversial, especially when they are applied to women. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020; Isaac Henry Victor, “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
Social control is exercised largely through Islamic law. Some criminals are given an order of social boycott or banished to the uninhabited islands for a year, several years or life. A 15 year banishment sentence is not uncommon although such punishments are often commuted or shortened with a presidential pardon..
The justice system is divided into courts of general and limited jurisdiction and includes a high court, civil court, criminal court, family and juvenile court, and 204 general courts. Administratively, the country is divided into nineteen atolls and the capital city. [Source: Governments of the World: A Global Guide to Citizens' Rights and Responsibilities. 2006]
Historically, Maldivian society has been closely knit and disciplined as a result of unity of religion (Sunni Muslim) and language. Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen wrote in the “Encyclopedia of World Cultures”: “Social Control is through the island offices and atoll offices, in which religious law is part of the tight state apparatus. The atoll court has separate sections to deal with religious, criminal, and political violations. Atoll and island headmen study Islamic religious law. [Source: Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Paul Hockings, 1992]
Judicial Branch of the Maldives Government
Judicial branch: highest courts: Supreme Court (consists of the chief justice and four to six justices. There were three justices as of late 2019). Subordinate courts are the Criminal, Civil, Family, Juvenile, and Drug Courts; Magistrate Courts (on each of the inhabited islands). [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020 =]
Supreme Court judges are appointed by the president in consultation with the Judicial Service Commission — a 10-member body of selected high government officials and the public — and upon confirmation by voting members of the People's Majlis (the Maldives parliament). Judges serve until mandatory retirement at age 70. =
The president appoints all judges to the courts. He can (or could in the past but can’t anymore) fire judges or overturn High Court decisions at will and has (or had) the final word in all legal cases. A 1995 presidential decree gave power to a five-member advisory council appointed by the president to review the high court's decisions. The president also has (or had) authority to affirm judgments of the high court, to order a second hearing, or to overturn the court's decision. The president may grant pardons and amnesties. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Islam and the Law in the Maldives
Maldivians follow the sharia or Islamic law. Occasionally, the courts order convicted criminals to be flogged. Usually, however, punishment is limited to fines, compensatory payment, house arrest, imprisonment, or banishment to a remote island. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994 *]
The 1968 constitution vested final authority for the propagation of Islam in the president, who in turn was empowered to appoint all judges who interpreted and apply the sharia in the adjudication of civil and criminal cases. In Maldives, therefore, the courts were not independent of the executive branch, but rather were under the minister of justice, who was appointed by the president. *
Islamic law punishments are generally light but there are exceptions (See Below). The large islands and atolls have a qazi, who peforrms marriages, adjudicates disputes and inheritance, and enforces Sharia law as interpreted by an attorney general. A few judicial experts are trained in Egypt. [Source: Clarence Maloney and Nils Finn Munch-Petersen, “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Paul Hockings, 1992]
Courts and Judges in the Maldives
The judiciary in the Maldives is comprised of the Supreme Court (High Court), Civil Court, Criminal Court, Family and Juvenile Court, and 204 general courts. Final judicial authority in Maldives is exercised by the High Court. The High Court and eight lesser courts are located in Malé. The High Court handles politically sensitive cases and acts as a court of appeal. Each of the lesser courts deals with cases that involve debt, theft, or property claims. On other islands there are all-purpose courts. [Source: “Countries of the World and Their Leaders” Yearbook 2009, Gale; “Gale Encyclopedia of World History: Governments”, Thomson Gale, 2008]
The Maldivian legal system — though derived mainly from traditional Islamic law — is primarily administered by secular officials, a chief justice, and lesser judges on each of the 19 atolls. The judges are appointed by the president and function under the Ministry of Justice. There also is an attorney general. Each inhabited island within an atoll has a chief who is responsible for law and order. Every atoll chief, appointed by the president, functions as a district officer in the British South Asian tradition. [Source: “Countries of the World and Their Leaders” Yearbook 2006, Thomson Gale]
The secular side of the Maldivian legal system is administered by secular officials, a chief justice, and lesser judges on each of the 19 atolls, who are appointed by the president and function under the Ministry of Justice. [Source: “Countries of the World and Their Leaders” Yearbook 2009, Gale]
Atoll courts have separate sections that deal with religious, criminal and political violations. Civil law is applied but remains subordinate to Shariah. While Malé is home to a High Court and lower courts, the other islands have is one all-purpose lower court. Complex cases are referred to the appropriate specialized court in Malé. There are also general courts on the islands. The High Court hears a range of cases as a court of first instance and also serves as a court of appeal. Lower courts each deal with a specific area such as theft, property, or family law issues. The all-purpose lower courts on the other island are often presided over by traditional legal practitioners.
There are no jury trials for criminal cases. Islamic law judges conduct trials, which are open to the public. The accused may call witnesses and may be assisted by a lawyer. There are, however, few professionally trained lawyers in Maldives, and the court does not provide a lawyer to an indigent defendant. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Sharia (Islamic Law) in the Maldives
The importance of Islam in Maldives is evident in the lack of a secular legal system. Instead, the traditional Islamic law code of sharia, known in Dhivehi as sariatu, forms the basic law code of Maldives as interpreted to conform to local Maldivian conditions by the president, the attorney general, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the Majlis. Shariah justice is meted out by the high court and lower courts appointed for that purpose by the president, and functioning under the Ministry of Justice. Civil law is also applied but remains subordinate to Shariah. Judges must be Muslims.[Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1994 *]
Sharia is not codified in the Maldives, so it is up to the courts to decide how it should be implemented and carried out. The age of criminal responsibility in the Maldives is 10, but children as young as seven may be found guilty of certain crimes under sharia. From time to time courts hand down sharia sentences of flogging. According to a survey by Avaaz, nine out of 10 sentences for flogging in the Maldives in 2011 were given to women, while no man has been convicted of rape from 2011 to 2013.
Sharia has been in place for some time. Ibn Battuta (1304-1369) is regarded as the greatest traveler of all time. He visited the Maldives and he stayed there for some time and served as an Islamic judge. According to Nick Bartel and ORIAS: “He set about his duties as a judge with enthusiasm and tried with all his might to establish the rule of strict Muslim law and change local customs. He ordered that any man who failed to attend Friday prayer was to be whipped and publicly disgraced. Thieves had their right hands cut off, and he ordered women who went "topless" to cover up. [Source: Travels of Ibn Battuta, Nick Bartel and ORIAS, U. C. Berkeley, ibnbattuta.berkeley.edu |::|]
Sex Laws in the Maldives
Mary Boland wrote in the Irish Times: “Bikinis, alcohol sales and consumption, unmarried and homosexual sex are all permitted in tourist resorts but they are all crimes outside resorts. Punishment for such transgressions is harsh. More than 100 public floggings are carried out each year for “fornication”, the majority on women and girls. In 2013 an international outcry saved a 15-year-old rape victim from 100 lashes. See Below [Source: Mary Boland, Irish Times, August 16, 2014]
The Independent reported: The Maldives “pre-marital sex is a crime and those found guilty are often flogged. In September 2012, a court ordered the public flogging of a 16-year-old woman who had confessed to premarital sex, while in the summer of 2009 a pregnant 18-year-old woman received 100 lashes in public after she admitted to having sex with two different men.
The Maldives Times reported: “In another rape case that happened on 15th May 2013, was of a girl that was gang raped in an island in the Maldives. The police had arrested three 17 year old males and one 19 year old man who had raped a 20 year old girl. The four boys and the girl were friends and they hung out all the time. The girl wasn’t a well-disciplined girl and it seems that, it was unlikely that anyone would rape her, it would be easier than that, said the councillor of the island. The girl had reported it to the police as gang rape because the rapists had filmed the incident. [Source: Maldives Times, May 1, 2017]
A survey by Avaaz found that 92 per cent of Maldivians want a reform of national laws to protect women from sexual assault, while 73 per cent are opposed to punishments for women for “sexual crimes”. One in three women between the ages of 15 and 49 has suffered either physical or sexual abuse over the past five years.Nine out of 10 sentences for flogging in the Maldives in 2011 were given to women, while no one has been convicted of rape in the past three years. [Source: Jane Merrick, The Independent, August 24, 2013]
15-Year-Old Maldives Rape Victim Sentenced To 100 Lashes For Premarital Sex
In 2013, a 15-year-old Maldives girl who was raped by her stepfather was sentenced to 100 lashes for engaging in premarital sex. In 2012, police began investigating allegations that a 15-year-old had been repeatedly raped by her stepfather and impregnated after a baby was found buried on the island of Feydhoo in Shaviyani Atoll, the BBC reports. Prosecutors alleged that the punishment related to a separate incident and not the rape case. The sentence was never carried out due to the international media attention the case received. The Maldives High Court said it was overturning the sentence because the girl denied “confessing” to consensual sex outside marriage. The girl, however, spent 18 months in jail before the charges were dropped.
The Maldives Times reported: The 15 year old girl that was raped for several years by her stepfather and her own mother was an accomplice in the crime. The girl was sexually abused and as a result she was impregnated by her stepfather. She had given birth to the baby and her mother and stepfather had killed the newborn infant and buried the infant outdoor shower of a house. The 15 year old girl, her mother and stepfather were arrested. The 15 year old girl was charged with ‘consensual sexual relations’ facing fornication charges, her stepfather was charged with sexual abuse, possession of pornographic materials and committing murder without intent and her mother was charged with concealing the crime and failure to report child sexual abuse to the authorities. [Source: Maldives Times, May 1, 2017]
Cavan Sieczkowski wrote in the Huffington Post: “During questioning, the alleged rape victim reportedly admitted to having sex with another man, according to independent Maldives news organization, Minivan News. This man has not been identified, arrested or charged. Meanwhile, the stepfather is accused of killing the baby and faces 25 years in jail if convicted of rape and murder. Zaima Nasheed, a spokesperson for the Maldives juvenile court, defended the punishment of 100 lashes and eight months house arrest, claiming the girl had “willingly committed an act outside of the law,” the BBC writes. She will receive the flogging when she turns 18, unless she requests it sooner. [Source: Cavan Sieczkowski, Huffington Post, February 27, 2013]
Masood Imad, a spokesman for Maldives President Mohamed Waheed, also rationalized the penalty. “She is not going to be lashed to cause her pain... rather, it is for her to feel the shame for having engaged in activity forbidden by the religion,” Imad told the Agence France-Presse.
However, human rights groups have condemned the premarital sex charge against the 15-year-old. “The girl is already a victim and is traumatised, the authorities should be trying to protect her, not punish her,” Meenakshi Ganguly, south Asia director for Human Rights Watch told the AFP, calling flogging “an inhuman, degrading practice... the kind of punishment that should not exist in their law books.”
“Minivan News notes that the state’s motives for punishing a rape victim, who has suffered physical and mental trauma, are unclear. In January, when the premarital sex charges were first brought up, Amnesty International spoke out in defense of the young girl. “This is an absolute outrage, regardless of the reason for her charges. Victims of rape or other forms of sexual abuse should be given counselling and support — not charged with a crime,” Abbas Faiz, Amnesty International’s Maldives researcher, said. “We urge the Maldivian authorities to immediately drop all charges against the girl, ensure her safety and provide her with all necessary support.” He added that the punishment could induce more damage, saying “The fact that this time a 15-year old girl who has suffered terribly is at risk makes it all the more reprehensible. Flogging is not only wrong and humiliating, but can lead to long-term psychological as well as physical scars.”
Maldivian Society and Rape
“Let’s talk about rape culture in the Maldives... The way that our society deals with rape is rather shocking to me. We are not all sympathetic towards victims of rape. Especially towards minors and women who have gone through years of abuse, whether it is from a stepfather, a close family member or from your closest friends. It is somehow the victims fault. It is the victim’s fault that he/she decided to wear a certain type of clothe and go outside. It if the victim’s fault for being out late and hanging out with friends.[Source: Maldives Times, May 1, 2017]
“I noticed a common pattern in rape cases in the Maldives is that they never the identity of the rapist.” This was the case with the 15 year old girl that was raped for several years and then charged with pre-marital sex. “As the case reveals itself day by day, month by month, the 15 year old minor is being convicted of premarital sex with 100 lashes and 18 months of house arrest. Yes, a minor who, apparently has ‘consensual sexual relations’ with an adult. She had confessed that it was consensual, but the man that impregnated her was not her stepfather but another unidentified that they were not able to present in court. The authorities had the audacity to say that they felt sorry that she had to go through years of sexual and mental abuse by her guardians and they also went on to say that she ‘deserved the punishment’ as it is the penalty for fornication under Shariah Law in the Maldives. It wasn’t because of the flogging that she ‘deserved this punishment’, it was because she supposedly had consensual sex with an unidentified man.
“I was shocked when I read about this case. I was angry and upset, not at myself but at the justice system of the Maldives that allows to punish sexual abuse victims for a crime that they didn’t commit. I was shocked that there were people who was working on this case that believed that a 15 year old minor would even have consensual sex in the first place. Think about it, why would a 15 year old have consensual sex other than the fact that she was manipulated or mentally abused to have sex with an adult? Her stepfather had abused her for years and her own mother had known about this and kept quiet for years. Are we supposed to feel sympathetic towards the mother because she wasn’t able to protect her own child? Are we supposed to forgive her stepfather for abusing her? Or are we supposed to believe that a 15 year old was in the wrong the whole time?
“In regard to May 2013 rape cases described above, involving three 17 year old males and one 19 year old man who had raped a 20 year old girl. The police never revealed the identity of the rapists and the case was immediately put under investigation. This case in particular was what is famously known as the ‘rape apologist and victim blaming scenario’. Let me explain: victim blaming is when the society or an authority is held accountable for the danger that occurred to them. Whether it is rape, sexual harassment, and emotional, mental or physical abuse, they are used to make the victim feel like they should feel guilt, fear, shame and powerless towards their oppressor. Rape apologist is when the society or an authority justifies the actions of a rapist and claims that the incident never happened, or makes the society feel like we need to be sympathetic towards the rapist rather than the victim. The councillor of this island continued to say that the boys will be very scared and worried, because they are not that type of guys. What does ‘not that type of guys’ mean anyways? Why are we supposed to feel sorry for the rapists? The simple answer to that is, that we shouldn’t. Period. I was baffled and upset that the councillor felt that we needed to feel sorry for the four rapists when the victim had suffered more than anyone in that situation.
“This brings me back to the gang rape incident that happened in March 2017, a 19 year old woman was gang raped in HulhuMalé. She was found on the pedestrian in the BBQ area with her clothes torn apart and dumped in the area. (If you haven’t heard about this, now you know). It’s May now and the police still haven’t made any arrests. I wonder if they even bothered to find the rapists, or are they saying that the ‘investigation is their highest priority’ and never solved it anymore?
Death Penalty for Ten-Year-Olds in the Maldives?
In April 2014, following a 60-year moratorium, the Maldives decided to allow the death penalty. The last one was carried out in 1953. Mary Boland wrote in the Irish Times: “Facilities are being built at a prison on Maafushi Island to have murder convicts executed by lethal injection.The age of criminal responsibility in the Maldives is 10, but children as young as seven — who may be found guilty of certain crimes under Islamic sharia — could now potentially face a death sentence. Executions of convicted minors would take place once they turned 18. The government has defended the measure in the face of international criticism,citing the state’s overcrowded prisons and rising violence between drug gangs.[Source: Mary Boland, Irish Times, August 16, 2014]
Under Sharia, the death penalty will apply to children involved in murder. President Abdulla Yameen who came to power in November 2013 announced the draconian step.In the Maldives, people are now criminally responsible for their acts starting at the age of ten. In some cases like theft, fornication, consumption of alcohol and apostasy, the age limit drops to seven. In the case of murder, the sentence cannot be carried until the culprit reaches the age of 18. This means that children have to remain incarcerate on death row until the age of 18. Despite condemnations from top United Nations and European Union officials for the reintroduction of the death penalty, President Yameen, as justification for the move, said that "Murder has to be punished with murder".[Source: asianews.it, May 23, 2014]
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Republic of Maldives Department of Information, the government site (maldivesinfo.gov.mv), Ministry of Tourism Maldives (tourism.gov.mv), Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC, visitmaldives.com), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022