Supreme Court nullifies High Court ruling on death penalty

The Supreme Court of the Maldives has nullified the High Court ruling, which had called to delay implementation of death penalty until the case submitted by Democracy Network on the issue had been fully reviewed. Supreme Court had also declared the Democracy Network case as baseless, effectively nullifying the case.

A statement released last night by Supreme Court said the apex Court had issued the death penalty verdict, as per the death penalty act. The statement said that High Court had no legal basis in accepting a case that was in itself baseless and directly challenged the apex Court ruling on the issue and therefore, the actions of High Court directly contravened the Constitution.

Quoting clause 143 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court said that lower Courts had to follow the verdicts issued by Supreme Court. As such, the statement added that High Court ordering to delay the verdict was an illegal one in its nature and that there was no legal basis to it.