Former defence minister Mohamed Nazim smiles as he is led inside the Supreme Court for the hearing on June 15, 2016. MIHAARU PHOTO/NISHAN ALI
A letter has been brought to the attention of the United Nations (UN) which jailed former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb sent to the Supreme Court, in which he said that he is willing to expose the truth behind a hand gun that was found in the residence of former Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim, which had landed the latter in jail over illegal weapon’s possession.
In the letter, Adheeb claims that he knows the truth behind the pistol along with three bullets found in Nazim’s house of which, he assured Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed, Nazim has no knowledge. Claiming to be aware of the reasons behind the incident, the perpetrators and others involved in it, Adheeb proclaimed that he is prepared to testify in court and expose the whole truth to the public. Reiterating that the pistol and bullets did not belong to Nazim, he further claimed that he can prove that the former defence minister was unaware of the plot.
The letter was sent to the UN by UN’s Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Ahmed Shaheed, stating that it counts as evidence which proves that Nazim is innocent of the crime he is convicted of.
In a tweet, Shaheed said that the letter was submitted to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad.
The UN had previously reviewed the case of Nazim and declared that he was arrested unlawfully and called for his immediate release.
In addition, Shaheed also highlighted that the period given by UN to the Maldives’ government to release Nazim will expire this month, after which he would file the issue at UN.
Nazim is currently serving a jail sentence of 11 years over the pistol found in his apartment in capital Male in January 2015. The High Court upheld the lower court’s jail sentence on Nazim despite finding neither his DNA nor fingerprints on the weapon.
However, amidst the appeal hearing at the Supreme Court, Police disclosed on June 21, 2016 that former Vice President Adheeb’s DNA was found on the pistol. Despite the new evidence, Police stated at the time that it was early to say that Nazim had been framed.
Nazim’s lawyers accuse a police officer by the name “Asif” of planting the pistol in Nazim’s residence, claiming that there are witnesses to the crime. However, the state has denied the accusations and refused to bring the alleged witnesses forward.
The former defence minister had filed to appeal his long jail sentence. However, the Supreme Court decided on June 26, 2016 to reject the case, five days after Police revealed that Adheeb’s DNA was found on the pistol. The Prosecutor General’s Office had also forwarded the DNA report to the Supreme Court by then.