Murder suspect hands himself in to Colombo embassy

A 20-year-old Maldivian man wanted over a fatal stabbing in Malé gave himself up to the authorities by walking into the Maldivian embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Saturday.

Mohamed Humaid told officials that Interpol had issued a red notice for him over the killing of 23-year-old Ahmed Jailam Shakir in February last year.

He was brought to Malé on the same day and taken to a remand centre, a police spokesman said.

Humaid has spent more than a year on the run. The Interpol notice was issued in July last year.

Jailam was stabbed numerous times by two men armed with machetes outside his house. The killing came two months after the murder of 28-year-old Ahmed Mafaz.

A 20-year-old suspect was arrested on March 10, 2015 whilst two other suspects, aged 19 and 24, were taken into police custody with arrest warrants on March 3, 2015.

The three are on trial at the criminal court.

Nine people were killed in violent crime in the Maldives in 2015. Some six have been killed this year.