Shainee: State doesn’t need to prove weapons were Nazim’s

Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture, Dr. Mohamed Shainee has commented State prosecution did not need to prove the weapons found in former Minister of Defense, Colonel (Retired) Mohamed Nazim’s bedroom were his.

Nazim was sentenced to 11 years in prison over the weapons found in his room in 2015.

Nazim’s family filed his conviction with United Nations Working Group of Arbitrary Detention through Amnesty International in 2016.

UNWGAD decided that Nazim was imprisoned in violation of Maldivian and international laws.

It demanded Nazim’s immediate release, and demanded Maldivian government compensate him for the violation of his rights in accordance with international law.

It also said that given claims Nazim was framed, State prosecution needed to prove the weapons found in Nazim’s bedroom were indeed his.

Speaking in an interview on Television Maldives’ show “Rajje Miadhu”, Minister Shainee said other countries too had determined structural liability offenses.

Shainee said that Nazim was charged in reference to law on items banned from import into Maldives. And that the crime he was suspected of was a structural liability offense.

“The crime he was charged with is a structural liability offense. Its evidence doesn’t need to be provided by the State. It needs to be provided by the offender,” he said.

Shainee took the example of Singapore to make his case.

He said that if narcotics are smuggled into Singapore in a bag, the State of Singapore did not need to prove how the narcotics came to be in the bag.

“Singapore will not look at how the narcotics came to be in the bag. It’s the person carrying it who will be in the wrong. The proof needs to be given by him,” he said.

Shainee said that even in Maldives, if anyone was caught in possession of over 1 gram of narcotics, State did not need to prove to court if the intent was for distribution or not.

“It’s written in the law that if found in possession of more than one gram of narcotics, intent for distribution must be assumed and a certain punishment will be given for that,” he said.