Murder Trials in the Maldives from a Therapeutic Lens

Abstract

Section 92 of the Maldives Penal Code (9/2014) reserves the capital penalty for the most serious homicides, and the law tries to reduce the imposition of capital punishment by rigidifying the procedural requirement. However, the case law demonstrates the opposite effect. This article seeks to advance therapeutic values of procedures and promote less severe punishments in murder cases by utilising knowledge from therapeutic jurisprudence and sharia. To validate the research claim, three randomly selected cases were examined. According to the findings, current court practises in murder cases do not promote therapeutic values or result in less severe punishment. Keywords: Criminal Procedure; Sharia Law; Therapeutic Jurisprudence; Murder Trial eISSN: 2398-4287© 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v7iSI11.4165