Death sentence against Murrath also appealed

The Criminal Court death sentence against Ahmed Murrath (M. Masroora) for the murder of famous lawyer and writer Ahmed Najeeb has been appealed to the High Court.

A High Court official said today that Murrath’s case was submitted after the appeal deadline had passed. The request for permission to appeal, as required by High court regulation for appeals submitted after the deadline, was submitted last Thursday. The court had not decided on whether accept Murrath’s case.

“Murrath’s case was submitted after the appeal deadline had passed. High court regulation states that if you are to appeal after the deadline, you would first have to submit a request for a permission to appeal. Murrath’s case was submitted this way. High Court has not yet decided on whether to accept the case,” said the High Court official.

Murrath was convicted upon his confession. Fathimath Hana (Shaviyani Goidhoo Rihaab), Murrath’s girlfriend, who was also convicted for Najeeb’s murder had appealed the case to the High Court just before her appeal deadline closed.

The Criminal Court sentence against Murrath and Hana stated that on June 30th, Murrath and Hana brought Najeeb to their room, sat Najeeb on a chair, took his two mobile phones, cash and cash-card from his wallet, and that they had forced Najeeb to reveal his cash-card pin number.

The sentence also stated that they had forced a rag down Najeeb’s mouth, bound tape on Najeeb’s face in a way that he will obstruct his vision, locked Najeeb in the room, had used the cash-card to withdraw money and used the money to buy drugs.

The sentence also stated that Murrath had confessed that they had gone back to the house after purchasing the drugs, had intoxicated themselves with alcohol and dry drugs, had seated Najeeb on a chair in their room, bound tape around his face and forced a knife into his throat to kill him.