High Court upholds death penalty in brutal slaying of taxi driver

The High Court has upheld the death penalty issued against Adhuham Mohamed, the man convicted in the brutal slaying of taxi driver Qasim Hassan in suburban Hulhumale’ back in 2019.

Qasim, 59, was found stabbed in an isolated street near the halfway house in Hulhumale’ on December 4, 2019. He died shortly after he was taken to the hospital. The-then 21-year-old Adhuham was arrested two weeks later, on December 19, 2019.

The Criminal Court found Adhuham guilty of Qasim’s murder on March 19, 2019, and sentenced him to death on April 16, 2019 – after all five of his Qasim’s surviving children asked the court to apply the principles of Qisas.

The state subsequently filed a petition with the High Court, seeking to affirm the conviction.

The High Court issued its ruling on Tuesday, deciding to uphold the conviction.

During the appeal hearings, the court instructed Adhuham to refrain from any contact with Qasim’s family, after state prosecutors, citing the family, said that Adhuham’s lawyers had been attempting to contact them via phone.

The prosecutors said that the family had nothing to say to Adhuham, and did not wish to be contacted by him or his lawyers.

The judge instructed Adhuham to respect the family’s wishes and refrain from any further contact.

Investigators ruled Qasim's murder as a case of a mugging gone wrong.

According to police, Adhuham had been armed with a knife and actively looking for someone to rob in order to feed his drug habit. He hailed Qasim’s taxi from Hulhumale’ and climbed into the back and asked to be dropped off at the halfway house. He then took out his knife and attempted to rob Qasim, and then stabbed him in the neck when he resisted.

The police found defensive wounds in his hands.

Qasim was found collapsed on the street by WAMCO workers passing by on a truck.

During the original trial, Adhuham had initially signed a plea deal with the prosecution, under which he confessed to killing Qasim and gave a detailed account of what happened.

However, he later claimed he was tortured by the police and that the confession was extracted under duress.

Adhuham later confessed for a second time at court, but denied the murder was intentional. He said he had been on drugs and hadn’t meant to kill Gasim.

However, Judge Ali Nadheem ruled that Adhuham’s actions prior to and after the murder shows he wasn’t unaware of the consequences of his actions when he committed the crime.

The court found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt.