Secular ideas have been reduced in new Penal Code: MP Hamza

Chairperson of Penal Code Review Committee Ahmed Hamza has said that efforts have been made to reduce secular ideas in the Penal Code Bill.

Hamza said this while presenting the committee’s report on the bill, on which the committee has worked for seven years, to the parliament today.

“We know that this work by Professor Paul Robinson has been criticised by scholars around the world. In light of this, any secular ideas included in this bill have been reduced based on technical and scholarly information gathered by us,” he said.

He said that several concerns were raised by religious scholars regarding the Penal Code Bill.

“During the review of this bill, concerns were raised by religious scholars and officials of the judicial sector. Finding solutions to those problems was not easy,” he said.

Hamza said that the Penal Code Bill is based on a draft compiled by legal expert Professor Paul Robinson, who conducted a study of the criminal justice system in the Maldives during former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom’s presidency, when Dr Hassan Saeed was Attorney General.

Hamza said that the new Penal Code will bring about major changes to the criminal justice system of the Maldives.

The Penal Code Bill, containing 197 articles, states that it will be enforced one year from the date that it is ratified by the president.