Abdulla Ali Manik, a suspect accused of involvement in the attempt to assassinate Speaker Mohamed Nasheed with a bomb, has been convicted of supporting a terrorist organization and sentenced to five years in prison.
Co-defendant Mohamed Thasleem was found not guilty of the same charge.
Following their arrests, the police said at the time that they were the architects of the bomb attack on May 6, 2021. However, after the investigation, they were only charged with supporting the terrorist group Islamic State (IS).
At the sentencing hearing on Sunday, Judge Ali Adam noted that the law specifies certain types of evidence required to prove the charge, of which at least four types of evidence must be submitted to court.
Thasleem was acquitted over the lack of four types of evidence. The evidence against Thasleem was a police intelligence report and the testimony of two anonymous witnesses, which amounted to only two types of evidence.
The evidence considered to prove Ali Manik's guilt included photos, videos and documents found on his phone, secret witness testimony and official state documents in addition to a police intelligence report.
The law mandates a jail sentence of three to five years for Ali Manik's terrorism charge. As he has already spent two years and two months in custody, he would have to serve two years and 10 months of the five-year sentence.
Ali Manik was a principal actor during a violent confrontation that occurred between the security forces and religious extremists on Himandhoo island in 2007. He had also escaped from prison while serving a sentence handed down over the unrest.
