High Court upholds life sentence of man who threw drugs into the sea near MMA to evade police

The High Court has upheld the life sentence of a man who threw drugs into the sea near the MMA building in an attempt to hide them from police.

Ahmed Areesh, of Gulsanpaa, Male' City, was sentenced to life imprisonment for trafficking dimorphine. According to case records, the incident took place on December 25, 2019, after police drug intelligence received information that Areesh would be near the MMA building carrying drugs.

When officers spotted him, Areesh took an item wrapped in black insulation tape from the back pocket of his jeans and threw it into the sea. Police retrieved the item and found 59.5687 grams of dimorphine.

Areesh was charged, convicted, and sentenced to life imprisonment along with a MVR 100,000 fine. He appealed the verdict at the High Court, arguing that the prosecution’s witness testimony contained material contradictions and unreasonable statements.

His defence further claimed that the Criminal Court failed to consider defence testimony stating that Areesh did not throw anything, and that the prosecution had not presented corroborating evidence such as CCTV footage or fingerprint analysis. They also argued that the material and psychological elements of the offence had not been proven, and no drug dependency assessment had been conducted.

However, the High Court ruled that there was no legitimate or legal basis to overturn the Criminal Court’s judgment. The decision was delivered on Thursday by a bench comprising Justices Fathimath Farheeza, Hussain Mazeed and Deebanaz Fahumy.

Court records also show that Areesh has a prior criminal conviction.