Tariq Ramadan: Executing Humaam would be a violation of Islamic Sharia

Famous Oxford University professor and Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan has said that enforcing Hussain Humaam Ahmed’s death sentence would be a violation of the principles of Islamic sharia, appealing to Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen not to go through with the execution.

Tariq Ramadan had visited Maldives in November, 2015 to lecture at Ministry of Islamic Affairs’ religious awareness program – The Message.

He had also met with President Yameen during the visit.

Tariq sent a letter to President Yameen, in which he said that he had met with Maldivian

Islamic scholars during his visit to the country, and had sat in on discussions regarding the integration of Islamic sharia into Maldivian criminal justice system.

“I stressed during the discussions the importance of a fair and transparent trial even for a criminal. I also supported enforcing capital punishment as was prescribed in Islamic sharia,” noted Tariq in his letter.

He said that there were, however, major concerns and doubts surrounding Humaam’s trial.

He noted that Humaam had said his confession of murdering Dr. Afrasheem Ali had been made under duress after police threatened to harm his family – which was the first thing to create room for doubt regarding the trial.

He then noted that no tests had been done to determine Humam’s mental state, despite claims by his family that he was mentally unstable.

He said that international laws dictated that capital punishment cannot be enforced on anyone determined to be mentally unstable.

Tariq then noted in his letter that Dr. Afrasheem had two children under the age of 18. And that the court had not waited until they came of legal age to obtain their say regarding executing Humaam.

He said that them not having any say in the matter meant that some of Afrasheem’s next-of-kin had not been consulted, to find out if the wanted to avenge their father’s murder with “an eye for an eye”.

He said that Afrasheem’s family’s wishes needed to be respected.

Afrasheem’s family had sent a letter to Supreme Court saying that they did not wish for Humaam to be executed before the investigation into the case was complete, and the people behind the murder were found out.

The letter was disregarded by Supreme Court, and the death sentence upheld.

Tariq said in his letter that appeals by the victims’ family that they did not wish for the murdered to be executed could not be overlooked.

He said that the wishes of victim’s next-of-kin needed to be respected under the principles of Gisaas, no matter what the government or anyone else wants.

He said that enforcing Humaam’s death sentence was therefore against the principles of Islamic sharia, and urged the government to do everything in their power to stop the execution.

Regulation on capital punishment calls for all death sentences to be enforced within 30 days Supreme Court upholds the sentence.

Humaam is to hanged in Maafushi Prison.