The Criminal Court declared Mohamed Nizam guilty of killing Bangladeshi citizen Mohamed Litton, who disappeared from the oil tanker Hedhey Kuri in 2012.

Litton, 35, went missing on December 28, 2012 while on duty with the tanker. Prosecutors stated that Nizam, Manaaru, GDh. Thinadhoo, accompanying him on the boat, cast him into the water without his awareness, leading to his demise. Nizam faced charges of deliberate murder along with two other crimes.

For the first time in the Maldives, a murder charge has been filed in a case related to a missing individual.

Nizam, at the age of 45 when arrested, had prior convictions for dimorphine trafficking and theft and had completed time for those crimes.

In the ruling on Tuesday, the court observed that Litton probably could not have survived because of the site where he was cast overboard. The judge emphasized that Nizam's animosity towards Litton had been proven, and that Nizam confessed in his statement to tossing him into the sea.

The court determined that the evidence did not satisfy the standard needed to establish intentional homicide according to Islamic Sharia. Instead, the judge determined that Nizam was guilty of causing death through a reckless act against human life as per the Penal Code.

The sentence has not been handed down yet. The prosecution has sought a 25-year prison sentence.