Maldives government cannot undermine the country's due process to release jailed former defence minister Mohamed Nazim despite a top United Nations (UN) rights panel urging the government to do so, a senior minister insisted Saturday.
Nazim was sentenced to 11 years in prison after he was convicted of weapons possession after police found a hand gun in his residence.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) on Friday had ruled that Nazim's trial was deeply flawed and called on the government for his immediate release.
The report noted that the government had failed to give a sufficient explanation to the Adheeb's fingerprints found on the weapon, pointing to the notion that it had in fact been planted.
UNWGAD also expressed concern over the lack of time provided to Nazim to prepare his defence, the limits placed defence witnesses and on his cross-examination of prosecution witnesses by the trial court and the High Court.
"Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the Working Group considers that an adequate remedy would be to release Col. Nazim immediately and accord him an enforceable right to reparations, in accordance with international law," the report read.
The UN panel has also given the government six months to provide it with information on action taken in follow-up to the panel's recommendations which includes Nazim's release.
After the Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the High Court despite DNA recovered from the pistol matched the DNA profile of former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor, who is currently serving 33 years for multiple accounts of terrorism and graft, Nazim has exhausted the appeal process.
Shainee pointed out that the government must uphold the rule of law and cannot sidestep the constitution and existing laws to release prisoners.
"No matter who asks us, we simply cannot release any prisoner without following the due process enshrined in the constitution," Shainee said.
Now that Nazim has exhausted his appeals, the only way to secure his release according to Shainee was to amend the laws which can be done through the parliament with the backing of the opposition.
"We would have to change the constitution and the relevant laws. That can be done through the parliament. But the government would need the support of the opposition to do that. So the government and the opposition needs to sit-down and come to some sort of an agreement," Shainee who is the government's chief representative of the stalled all party talks said.
The all party talks had been led by the Commonwealth and the government's decision to leave the now 52 member bloc last year had left question marks over dialogue between the main political parties in the archipelago.
Maldives left the Commonwealth citing unfair and unjust treatment weeks after the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) – the enforcement mechanism of the Commonwealth – threatened to suspend Maldives from the council at its next meeting in March if effective steps were not taken to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the archipelago.
Government however, had said the party talks remains on track but explained that the sit-downs have been delayed as the parties are yet to name representatives for the talks.
Government had first, demanded all political parties to have the representatives for the talks passed by the councils of the respective parties.
Days after, the government had informed all political parties that it would not allow convicted and jailed politicians in the talks.
The pre-conditions were criticized by the opposition parties, especially the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and religiously conservative Adhaalath Party (AP), looking to free their jailed leaders through the talks.
Shainee said the opposition parties have continued to be the main obstacle to the talks reiterating that the government have always remained open for dialogue.
"If they want to secure the release of their leaders, the government urges them to come to the negotiating table. But they've refused to do that. We keep saying that the only way to do that is for us to come to an agreement. We need the opposition's support to change the constitution or the relevant laws," the minister insisted.
"So without doing any of that, there's nothing the government or the president can do even if the UN asks us to do something."
According to the recently passed clemency law, the president can no longer grant clemency to a terrorism offence.
The minister also described the echoed calls by former presidents Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Mohamed Nasheed to release Nazim as extremely "irresponsible."
In its report released on Thursday, the UNWGAD said it had found serious due process violations which, taken together, demonstrate that Nazim had not received a fair trial.
The report noted that the government had failed to give a sufficient explanation to the Adheeb's fingerprints found on the weapon, pointing to the notion that it had in fact been planted.
UNWGAD also expressed concern over the lack of time provided to Nazim to prepare his defence, the limits placed defence witnesses and on his cross-examination of prosecution witnesses by the trial court and the High Court.
"Taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the Working Group considers that an adequate remedy would be to release Col. Nazim immediately and accord him an enforceable right to reparations, in accordance with international law," the report read.
The UN panel has also given the government six months to provide it with information on action taken in follow-up to the panel's recommendations which includes Nazim's release.
