Issue heats up as Committee listens to recording of Sheikh Ilyas

The Penal Code Review Committee has listened to the recording of the sermon by Sheikh Ilyas Hussain in which he said that the purpose of the draft of the Penal Code Bill is to ‘destroy Islam’.

The MPs present at the committee meeting today said after listening to the recording that Ilyas was lying, and that any person who had read the draft of the Penal Code Bill before listening to Ilyas’s sermon would know that he was not telling the truth.

The sermon was given by Sheikh Ilyas Hussain after Isha prayers at Furuqan Mosque last Friday. Themed “the purpose of Islamic Sharia”, the sermon was broadcast live on a local radio station "Radio Atoll".

Ilyas said in the sermon that if the Penal Code Bill is passed by the parliament and becomes a law, Islamic penalties would no longer exist in the Maldives. He said that the bill states that the crimes for which Islamic Sharia prescribes penalties do not require punishment.

“It does not include any penalties prescribed in the Islamic Sharia. [The Penal Code draft] does not include fornication, theft, corruption, deception; it has none of these things. What’s more, if a person is intoxicated while committing a crime, he would be exempted. If a child below 18 years of age commits a crime, he would also be exempted,” he said.

The MPs present at the committee meeting said that Ilyas’s statement were ‘outright lies’ and that the Penal Code draft was being prepared according to the principles of Islamic Sharia.

They said that penalties had been included in the bill for fornication, rape, and other sex crimes.

The MPs who criticised Ilyas were Bilehdhoo MP Ahmed Hamza, Thulhaadhoo MP Nazim Rashaad, Naifaru MP Ahmed Mohamed and Maafannu-North MP Imthiyaz Fahmy.

Ahmed Mohamed criticised the manner in which Ilyas ‘swore’ during the sermon, and said that people ‘should not dare’ tell such lies.

The Penal Code Bill describes how lashing should be carried out and the manner in which the official in charge should act against a person who is convicted of fornication for the first time. The MPs called on religious scholars to review Articles 130 and 411 which are related to sex crimes.

Committee Chairperson Ahmed Hamza said that the Penal Code Bill states that a person would be exempted from being penalised if he is forced into intoxication and thereby commits a crime; however, a person who intentionally gets intoxicated and then commits a crime would be punished.

While Ilyas claimed that children below 18 would not be punished under the Penal Code Bill, the bill actually only exempts children below the age of 14. Figh Academy wanted to lower this age to 10, but the committee chose not to include this proposition in the bill.

The Committee Chairperson said that a decision will be made later whether to continue with the issue of Ilyas’s claims regarding the Penal Code draft.