The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence handed to Hassan Fareed over the murder of Abdulla Shuhaadh, who was killed during a gang fight in Fuvahmulah.
The verdict was delivered today by a bench presided over by Chief Justice Abdulghanee Mohamed, with the justices ruling unanimously to uphold the sentence.
Shuhaadh, from Meko in Fuvahmulah, was attacked and killed in January 2010 during a fight between groups from two wards of the island.
In 2015, the Criminal Court sentenced Fareed, from Karankaage in Fuvahmulah, to death over the murder. After the High Court upheld the verdict, Fareed appealed the case at the Supreme Court.
During the Supreme Court appeal, the court sought the views of Shuhaadh’s parents, who stated, as they had in the lower courts, that they wanted qisas, the death penalty, to be carried out against Fareed.
Fareed represented himself before the Supreme Court without a lawyer. He raised claims that he had been mistreated by police and that there were procedural flaws in the investigation. However, he only raised these concerns after many hearings had been held, when the case had reached the stage of concluding hearings.
In its verdict, the Supreme Court said the evidence established that Shuhaadh died as a result of injuries caused by an attack with a sharp object, and that all witnesses had testified that the attack was carried out by Fareed.
The court noted that Fareed went to attack Shuhaadh while carrying a weapon, showing that the act was premeditated, and that it was proven beyond any doubt that the attack was carried out with the intention of killing Shuhaadh.
According to the verdict, witness testimony showed that Fareed stabbed Shuhaadh in the right armpit, and the medico-legal report confirmed that Shuhaadh died after a sharp object pierced his lung. The court said this established a clear link between Fareed’s actions and the cause of death.
The court ruled that, under the standards of proof in Islamic Shari’ah, it had been established that Fareed intentionally killed a person without any right.
With today’s ruling, the Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence against Hassan Fareed for the murder of Abdulla Shuhaadh.
