A hearing has been held in the murder trial of Mary Grace, a Philippines national employed as a nurse at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

Sunday’s hearing at the Criminal Court focused on collecting testimonies. Presiding over the case is Hussain Faiz Rashaad.

As such, testimonies were taken from two individuals who were living in the same residence as the victim and her spouse.

The two individuals were believed to have been around in the afternoon on the day of the murder.

Charged in connection with the murder case are Filipino nurse Marvin and Haleemath Lamha, a Maldivian woman who was also employed as a nurse at IGMH.

One of the witnesses said that their child had asked them if they heard any noises, when the witness and their child entered the building after returning from school that day.

The witness said that the child is believed to have heard a noise from inside the building, However, as the witness assumed it was just a quarrel on the street as it had happened earlier that week, dismissed the child's comment. The witness did not provide further details.

In an earlier hearing in connection with the case, Lamha’s attorney revealed that there were some chatlogs in Marvin and Mary’s native Philippinio language included in the state’s submissions. The defendant sought to translate the said chatlogs and sought from the judges’ bench not accept the submission if it cannot be translated.

In connection with the matter, the judge revealed that the defendant will be given the opportunity to ask questions after a testimony is taken from the individual who compiled the report.

The court had earlier given the state prosecutors the opportunity to procure the victim’s medical documents from IGMH earlier. However, since this has not been done yet the judge gave the state prosecutors until Monday to submit the said documents to the court.

Marvin was charged with deliberate murder of his wife Mary Grace on 4 January 2022. He faces accusations of injuring Mary’s head and neck and strangling her to death in their apartment in the capital city, on 19 October 2021.

Marvin faces a 10-year prison sentence if he is proven guilty of the charges raised against him.

Marvin’s lover, Lamha also faces charges for conspiring with Marvin to carry out the murder and assisting in facilitating it. Hearings in both trials are being held separately. Lamha’s trial is also proceeding separately. She faces six years in prison if she is found guilty.

She also faces additional charges for deliberately taking unauthorized control over the property of another person or place, after the police found two injections from IGMH that she did not have authority to take out of the hospital. The two needles were found hidden inside her bedroom. She is also charged with carrying out an activity that requires permission from authorities, without obtaining permission after police found a drug issued only for the use of hospitals, while searching her bedroom.

If convicted, Lamha will be jailed for four months and 24 days for that offense.

Maldives Police Service (MPS) confirmed the arrest of Lamha under a court order, on 16 December 2021.

Mary Grace was employed as a worker at the Dialysis Center of IGMH. The Filipino nurse’s suspicious death was reported on 19 October 2021. After bringing her body to the hospital, her spouse initially claimed that she committed suicide by hanging. However, he is to have later changed the story.

The police arrested her spouse, 29 years of age and also employed as a nurse in IGMH, under suspicions of murder as there were no signs of suicide by hanging, on the victim’s body. Her spouse was arrested on 27 October 2021.

The murdered nurse’s body was sent to India for an autopsy and returned to her family in Philippines afterwards, on 7 November 2021.

Citing the autopsy report, the police institution revealed that her death is not believed to have been by hanging. The autopsy report indicated that she died from a “blunt trauma”, which refers to an injury of the body by forceful impacts, falls or a physical attack on the body.

The police institution forwarded the case for prosecution on 19 December 2021.