Malé, Maldives – Mariyam Nazaha, sentenced to imprisonment for 25 years for the murder of ex-husband has appealed her case to the Supreme Court of Maldives.
Local news sources report that the Supreme Court of Maldives has accepted Nazaha’s appeal.
Nazaha states that she is pursuing her appeal now since her son is older and the changes to the Maldives legislature is more favourable to her case. She said that even if it is late, she wants her case to be heard.
In 2010, the Criminal Court of Maldives sentenced Mariyam Nazaha, H. Bainkendige, to two months of fast for repentance and life imprisonment for 25 years for murdering her ex-husband Hassan Shahid by stabbing him with a knife.
While Nazaha’s defense argues that she was a victim who exhibited signs of the “battered woman syndrome,” the court decided that the defense could not prove the abuse.
The High Court of Maldives in 2015 upheld the Criminal Court sentence stating that evidence indicated that no acts of abuse took place that day at the scene from Shahid and he had no time to inflict abuse.
Nazaha was allowed the chance to appeal for clemency by the High Court and has reduced the sentence by five years.
