Court orders handover of Mary’s medical charts to Lamha

Criminal Court, on Thursday, ordered the prosecution to handover of the medical charts of IGMH nurse Mary Grace Oned Pineda, that detail how she was treated from the moment she was brought to the hospital to one of the suspects charged in connection with Mary’s death, Haleemath Lamha.

A hearing held in the case today consisted of debate on pretrial motions submitted by both prosecution and the defense.

One pretrial motion by the defense, on behalf of Lamha, was a request to hand over Mary’s medical charts.

The prosecution stated that Mary’s death summary would detail how she was treated after being brought to IGMH. However, presiding judge over the case, Hussain Faiz Rashad, said that the prosecution failed to specify that the requested medical charts did not exist.

“In this situation, if the defense has requested a document under the impression that it will aid in their defense, (the prosecution) must check whether the document exists, and if it does, must be provided to the defense,” he had said.

Citing these reasons, Judge Faiz had ordered the prosecution to submit the medical charts, if IGMH documented them, to the Court within the next seven days.

Exclusion of two witnesses submitted by the defense

Apart from the aforesaid motion, none of the pretrial motions submitted by the defense was accepted. The judge decided to accept two pre-trial motions by the prosecution – which states that two witnesses produced by the defense were not relevant to the case, therewith, must not be summoned to court.

The two witnesses are Dr. Yoosuf Shaan and Sun’s journalist Ahmed Saail Ali.

Dr. Shaan was excluded as a witness as documents do not indicate he had treated Mary at any point.

The defense listed Saail as a witness over an interview given to Sun by Lamha prior to her arrest. The judge, excluding Saail as a witness, said that it is unclear what the defense wants to prove from the interview.

Background of the case

Mary was killed in her apartment on the first floor of Ma. Udhuheykokaage in Male’ City in the afternoon of October 19, 2021.

Her husband, Marvin S. Y. Vargas, 30, was charged with murder with intent in connection to her death.

Lamha, who was having an affair with Marvin, was charged as an accomplice to the murder.

Their trials are being held separately.

Should the murder charge against Marvin be proven in court, he faces a 10-year jail sentence.

Lamha faces a minimum of 6 years in prison if convicted as an accomplice to the murder.

It had been Marvin who had taken Mary’s body to IGMH in an ambulance on October 19. He initially claimed her death as a suicide by hanging, and later changed his story and said she had suddenly collapsed. 

Both Marvin and Lamha had also worked as nurses at IGMH.

Police found the death suspicious and opened an investigation into the case.  

Marvin was arrested on October 27, 2021 and Lamha on December 16, 2021.

After conducting an autopsy on Mary’s body, the Police announced that they do not believe Mary died of suicide by hanging, and that the postmortem examination revealed the cause of death to be blunt injuries. 

Lamha is also charged with two additional crimes; knowingly taking unauthorized control over the property of another after the police found two injections from IGMH which she had not been authorized to take out of the hospital hidden in an envelope in her bedroom and carrying out an activity that requires permission from an authority, without obtaining permission from the relevant authority after police found a type of drug issued only for the use of hospitals and health facilities during a search of her bedroom. 

She faces 4 months and 24 days in prison if convicted of both these charges.

Lamha admitted to her affair with Marvin in an interview to Sun last year. She claimed they ended their relationship a day before Mary’s death, but got back together again.