Court denies motion against postmortem; family to appeal

Civil Court on Sunday denied a motion to stop the police from performing a postmortem on the body of Abdulla Rasheed, 43, who died last week in police custody. 

The family has since decided to appeal the judgement at the High Court.

Abdulla’s mother, Mariyam Ahmed of Maaranga/GDh.Hoadehdhoo, had filed a case in the Civil Court contesting the police decision to conduct a postmortem on Abdulla. She had pleaded with the court to issue an order to the police to return the body of the deceased to his family so that his funeral rites may be completed at the earliest.

The court ruled that such an order could not be issued in a case as such.

Advocate Mohammad Ragib, who is representing the family in the case, told Atoll Times on Sunday evening that the family has now decided to appeal against the civil court's verdict.

"No contest has been shown against us as a matter of principle. There is no basis [in the judgement]. Will have to say that the verdict was not looked into," Ragib had said.

He said that necessary steps are being taken to challenge the verdict in the High Court. He said he would approach the High Court this evening.

Judge Hassan Faheem Ibrahim ruled that as noted by the state, section 1-75 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the 'Rules of Procedure to be followed in conducting post-mortems to investigate murder cases' made thereunder, the police have the right to conduct a post-mortem examination of the body to ascertain the cause of death in cases where there is an alleged negligence.

The judge, therefore, ruled that there was no place for the court to pass an order as requested by Abdullah's mother in the case.

The family's refusal to allow a post-mortem was based on four main reasons: 

The Drug Enforcement Department (DED) police arrested Abdulla Rasheed, 43, in a major drug operation conducted in Gaafu Dhaalu atoll. Three people, including Abdulla, were arrested from Hoadedhdhoo around 3pm on Tuesday. Abdulla died on the boat while it was still at harbour, in the middle of transporting the suspects.