WRITTEN QUESTION E-3335/01 by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission. The arrest of Mohamed Nasheed, MP, in the Maldives on 8 October 2001.
Date: 2001-11-30
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Maldives, Member of Parliament, arrest, exchange of information

18.7.2002

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 172 E/41

(2002/C 172 E/044)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3335/01

by Graham Watson (ELDR) to the Commission

(30 November 2001)

Subject: The arrest of Mohamed Nasheed, MP, in the Maldives on 8 October 2001

Is the Commission aware of reports that Mohamed Nasheed, a Member of Parliament in Malé, Republic of
Maldives, and a human rights activist, was arrested on 8 October 2001 without any clear reason being
given.

Would the Commission consider asking the Maldives Government to indicate the exact reason for
Mohamed Nasheed’s arrest and the charges, if any, that have been brought against him?

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(21 December 2001)

The Commission is not aware of the circumstances of the arrest of Mr Nasheed and has requested its Head
of Delegation in Colombo, who is accredited to the Republic of the Maldives, to make enquiries and to
report back.

The Commission will inform the Honourable Member of the results of these enquiries.

(2002/C 172 E/045)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-3337/01

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(27 November 2001)

Subject: Nigeria

On 9 October 2001 an Islamic court in Sokoto State, in northern Nigeria, sentenced a pregnant woman to
death by stoning after finding her guilty of having premarital sex. Safiya Hussaini Tungar Dudu, aged 30,
is the first person to be sentenced to death since the introduction in 2000 of a strictly Islamic legal code.
Judge Mohammed Bello Sanyinnawal, of the Gwadadawa Islamic Upper Court sentenced the woman to
death after she had admitted having premarital sex. The court released the man she had identified as her
lover on the grounds that it lacked sufficient evidence to prosecute him and gave her thirty days in which
to appeal. On 25 October 2001 Safiya’s lawyer appealed against the sentence, asking for a stay of
execution pending the decision of the Sharia Court of Appeal. On 1 November the President of the
Nigerian Senate, Anyim Pius Anyim, condemned the sentence passed by the Islamic Court albeit merely
with regard to the discriminatory nature of the decisions to sentence the woman and release the man,
while the Federal Government endorsed the appeal against the sentence.

There have been many other cases of the Sharia being applied to premarital sex since a dozen states in the
Federation decided two years ago to adopt a rigorously Islamic legal court. In January 2001 a seventeen-
year old girl, Bariya Mugazu, was subjected to 100 lashes in the state of Zamfara for premarital sex after
the court had rejected her disturbing account of having been raped by three suspects whom she had taken
to court and who were released owing to lack of evidence.

What urgent action has the Commission taken or does it intend to take or promote, on a bilateral or
multilateral basis, to prevent the execution of Safiya Hussaini Tungar Dudu and to encourage the Nigerian
authorities to abolish the Sharia and strengthen the rule of
law in their country? How does the
Commission intend to take up at international level the practice common in many Islamic countries of
in public judicial executions and other sentences such as floggings, executions and
carrying out
punishments often inflicted for offences which do not
in
contravention of the standards laid down by international human rights conventions?

involved violence, especially on women,