Male’, Maldives – Former Minister of Home Affairs Umar Naseer has said that drug lords have embedded their roots deep within the government.
Umar has said this after the Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office has decided not to appeal GDh. Gadhdhoo court’s decision to toss out a case regarding 5 individuals arrested with 149Kg of drugs in 2019.
Former Home Minister of Maldives, Umar Naseer states that the Prosecutor General’s Office failing to appeal the 149kg drug case and dismissing the charged five suspects shows lack of constitutionalism in the country.
Umar criticized this action and posted on Facebook saying that the failure of appealing this case shows the lack of constitutionalism in the country and how deep the roots of a drug dealer has gone in the state.
The state can only be saved by cutting these roots and by bringing a hardworking leadership with a strong objective. Hopefully, Maldivian citizens will see that day. Maldivians will see a community that is free from the danger of drugs.
Umar stated.
On April 29, 2019, the police seized 149kg of drugs during a 72-hour-long multi departmental police operation. According to Police, they were tracking the drugs from the point it entered the Maldivian waters until it was transferred to a speedboat and later transported by a dinghy to an uninhabited island where it was buried.
Hearings on the case were held earlier at the Criminal Court, but was ceased after a procedural point was raised during the preliminary stage. It was decided that the case should be submitted to a court in the area where the crime was committed, and the issue was subsequently tossed out of court. With PG filing with the Gadhdhoo Court, who also rejected the case, stating the charges were filed after the legally mandated time frame for submitting charges had passed.
This issue has been submitted to parliament by Member of Parliament for North Maafannu Constituency and Parliamentary Judiciary Committee Member Imthiyaz Fahmy. He tweeted that the issue has been submitted to Parliament on Monday, adding that it was discussed to investigate the apparent neglect by the court and to make involved individuals accountable for this decision.
The government was under fire last December, with many protesting the apparent leniency toward drug cases by the government after a drug lord serving a life sentence was released just after 3 years.
However since then, the government began a large crackdown on drug abuse, with numerous arrests and the incineration of 200 kilos of drugs.
