A petition seeking a review of the death sentence handed to Hussain Humaam for the murder of former MP and religious scholar Dr. Afrasheem Ali has been filed with the Supreme Court.
Dr. Afrasheem was brutally murdered on October 1, 2012, when he returned home after attending a religious program on TVM. He was attacked with a sharp object while he entered his home in Henveiru, Male' City.
Hussain Humaam was charged with Afrasheem's murder on January 10, 2013, a charge he denied later the same month. On May 22, he confessed to killing Afrasheem but later retracted his statement after hiring a lawyer. In January 2014, the Criminal Court sentenced him to death, and the verdict was upheld by the High Court in September 2015. On June 24, 2016, a unanimous bench of five Supreme Court judges supported the High Court decision.
The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether to accept the review petition filed by Humam in the Supreme Court last month. Although a policy is in place for the Supreme Court to review past cases, very few cases have been reviewed so far
