Parliament receives bill proposing to implement death penalty by hanging

Parliament has received a bill proposing to implement the death penalty by hanging, if the Supreme Court upholds the sentence passed by the lower courts.

This bill enters parliament at a time when the government has opened a draft bill on executing death penalties for public comments.

Titled “Implementing the death penalty”, the new bill was proposed to the parliament by Vilufushi MP Riyaz Rasheed.

MP Riyaz Rasheed said that the purpose of the bill is to introduce a means to implement the death penalty in the Maldives and consequently address the issue of increasing number of murders in the country.

The bill states that if the Supreme Court upholds a death penalty thereby exhausting all appeal processes, the death penalty shall be executed within a period of 45 days from the of the Supreme Court ruling.

The persons convicted have rights, the bill states. It says that they shall have the right to meet their family and shall also have the right to a last request.

It also requires the convict to be hanged in the presence certain officials, including a medical doctor designated by the Department of Penitentiary and Rehabilitation (DPRS), a lawyer from the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG), a member from the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) and at least one of the convict’s hires.

It also allows a few provisions to delay the execution, stating that no person under the age of 18 shall be executed and that the implementation of such a sentence shall be postponed until the person is 18 year of age.

It also states no woman shall be executed while she is with child and such a sentence can only be implemented after she gives birth and the child passes two years of age. It allows insanity as a provision for execution, stating that an insane person shall only be executed after he seeks treatment and is proven of sound mind.