Shortly after I started working at the Attorney General’s Office in 1995, the office manager, Ahmed Mohamed, called me into his office. He asked me if I knew Mr. XX [name omitted at the request of a family member because he passed away few years ago]. I told him that I grew up outside the country and few people knew them. Since he was satisfied with my answer, he assigned Mr. XX ‘s case to me.
I returned to my desk and read the documents.
The file contained a standard set of documents – charge sheet, statement by the accused, and a statement of a couple of witnesses of the event.
By then Mr. XX was already charged, and the Criminal Court had scheduled the hearing for the following day.
It turned out that Mr. XX was a Family Court judge in Male’, the capital of the Maldives. One day, he rendered a judgement against the wife in a matrimonial case. When she heard the verdict, she started yelling at the judge. Among other things, she accused the judge of siding with the husband because she refused to pay the bribe demanded by the judge
Mr. XX was immediately arrested and sent to the infamous Dhoonidhoo prison for further investigation.
The following day I went to the court and saw the judge, Mr. XX for the first time. He was a frail man, probably in his early 50s.
Reading the indictment the judge asked the defendant XX what he had to say about the accusations. He just burst into tears. In a sobbing and trembling voice, he told the court how he was dragged out of the courtroom and put in solitary confinement before he was asked a single question. He described in detail how he was brutality and cruelly treated during his interrogation.
The presiding judge let Mr. XX take his time and tell his whole story. It was clear that the judge had a great deal of sympathy for Mr. XX. I also felt the unfairness of the process involved.
He was found not guilty.
When I reported back about the court’s ruling, my superiors were furious. They couldn’t believe what I just reported. The case was later appealed to the High Court which then reversed the lower court judgement and passed a suspended sentence.
My failure to secure a conviction probably contributed to my losing Dr. Munvvar’s favor, and as in all such cases, my work in the prosecutor’s office ended with the prosecution of minor offenses.
During my work at the Attorney General’s office, attorneys would spend a great deal of time with judges and court officials during working hours. This frequent interaction often led to close bonds being formed between judges, court officials and attorneys. Often, judges and attorneys had breakfast together, shared tables and cracked jokes in the court cafeteria. Sometimes, we would even sit in the judges’ chambers, until the accused was brought to the court room to face charges. At that point the judge and attorney would walk into the court room and take their respective seats.
In between cases, attorneys often loitered around the courtroom. Sometimes we would join other attorneys during their cases to kill our time. On one such occasion, I saw a young man being sentenced. On hearing the sentence, he lunged towards the judges with clear intend to inflict physical harm. The judge took the heavy glass weight on his desk and yield!
“If you dare to touch me, I will smash your head into pieces!” I had every reason to believe that he meant every word he said! Luckily the court official managed to jump in between them and diffuse the situation.
I became curious about the young man. I wanted to know everything about him. I took the file from my colleague and read it, and later I obtained more information about him from judges and court officials
It turned out that he was only a teenager. And this was his 16th charge (almost a charge for each of the years he had lived up to that point!) Judges and court officials knew him well. They referred to him as the “devil.” The boy’s life of crime began when he was charged by an overzealous officer for riding a bicycle without a headlight (lights were required between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.). While serving his sentence, he committed many other crimes (all of a minor nature) that drew him deeper and deeper into crime.
That kid went on to become one of the most feared criminal gang leaders in the country 15 years later. He was charged with murder and later killed by a rival gang.
Every time I read about this young man in the news, I was reminded of my first encounter with him in that courtroom. It always reminded me of how the criminal justice system in this country created rather than rehabilitated criminals. This appears to be true even today.