Death penalty against Dhangethi businessman’s killer advances to Supreme Court

The death penalty issued against a Bangladeshi man convicted in the 2021 murder of a businessman from ADh. Dhangethi has advanced to the Supreme Court.

Local businessman Mahmood Aboobakr, 57, was found murdered and dumped in a water well in an abandoned house in Dhangethi on the afternoon of October 14, 2021, hours after he was reported missing. 

Police arrested the then-29 years old Sha Alom Mia (Salim), a Bangladeshi national, in connection to the murder on October 16, 2021. He was charged with murder with intent and abuse of a corpse, and pled guilty to both charges during the trial at Criminal Court. 

The court found him guilty, and sentenced him to death on February 27, 2022 - marking the first time for a foreign national to be sentenced to death in the Maldives. The conviction was upheld by the High Court on July 25, 2024.

The state filed a petition with the Supreme Court last week, seeking to reaffirm the death penalty against Salim.

Salim had confessed to the crime during both the investigative stage and at trial, but later told the High Court that his confession was coerced. Salim said he pled guilty because both his defense attorney and translator asked him to, and that he asked to be deported in exchange for his confession. But he changed his stance again, stating that he wishes for the court to uphold the death penalty.

Case background

Salim worked as a live-in caregiver for an elderly man by the name of Aadhanbe at Nedhunge – a house close to where Mahmood’s body was found.

He became the focus of the murder investigation after a woman reported hearing screams coming from Nedhunge at approximately 09:30 pm on October 13, 2021 – the night Mahmood went missing. She looked over the wall, and saw what looked like someone being dragged by their feet. 

She alerted one of Aadhanbe’s relatives, who called Salim. Salim told the relative he killed a cat. 

Police believe the murder was motivated by greed, and that Mahmood was carrying MVR 10,000 in cash in his wallet the night he went missing. 

Investigative findings showed Mahmood was killed in the house where Salim lived. Salim lured Mahmood into the house and demanded money. Mahmood was killed in a dispute which arose after he refused to give money.

Salim stabbed Mahmood multiple times. Medical examiners documented 30 different wounds on his body. After killing him, Salim stuffed his head and legs into sacks. He threw the body over the wall and onto the street, and then carried the body and dropped it head-first into the water well located in the abandoned house at the back of his house.

Police, during their search of Nedhunge, found some of Mahmood’s belongings as well as articles of clothes Salim had been wearing when he committed the murder.

Police also discovered CCTV footage from the night of the murder – which shows Salim carrying a person on his shoulders between 1:30am and 3:00pm.