The Criminal Court on Thursday dismissed charges raised against Ahmed Ismail (Buru Ahandhu) over the abduction of journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla and the murder of blogger Yameen Rasheed.
The Criminal Court decided that the evidence submitted in the case was insufficient to proceed to trial based on the civil standard of a balance of probabilities. Ahandhu was charged with aiding an act of terrorism.
He was accused of helping to organize surveillance of Yameen Rasheed to enable his murder. Yameen Rasheed was killed for allegedly expressing anti-Islamic views on various social media platforms.
In its ruling, the Criminal Court stated that in order to prove the charges raised against Ahandhu, evidence should have been submitted to show his intent to promote a certain ideology and that he had helped organize surveillance of Yameen Rasheed to facilitate the murder.
But the prosecution was unable to submit such evidence, the ruling stated. The state was only able to show links between Ahandhu and the assailants who stabbed Yameen to death, it noted.
“Reading the [intelligence reports submitted as evidence] shows that information about the surveillance of Yameen Rasheed and how it was done was not stated with certainty. Additionally, direct evidence to support the claims made in the reports was not submitted,” the Criminal Court’s ruling stated.
While there was some evidence in light of the matters stated in the intelligence reports submitted by the prosecution, the evidence was insufficient to charge the accused, the court said. Due to the lack of evidence, the balance of probability was weighed in favor of concluding that he did not commit the alleged crime, the court decided.
The deaths
Minivan News journalist Rilwan was abducted on August 7, 2014. The presidential commission said at a press conference in September 2019 that Rilwan was killed and his body was sunk in the sea by Maldivians who belonged to the terrorist groups ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Rilwan was killed in the name of religion after the group judged him to be an apostate, the presidential commission said. Rilwan was killed while he was reciting the shahadah [Islamic profession of faith], according to the commission.
Blogger Yameen was killed on April 23, 2017 while he was campaigning for justice over Rilwan's abduction. Two suspects were convicted over his murder.
Suspects were previously arrested and charged with terrorism after the police investigation into Rilwan's abduction from Hulhumale'. They were Aalif Rauf, Mohamed Nooradeen and Mohamed Suaid.
Of the three, Aalif and Nooradeen were released after their arrest. After Suaid was released, he left the country and was rumored to have been killed while fighting in Syria. No official agency has confirmed this. But the family informed the criminal court that he was dead.
The suspects prosecuted over Yameen's murder were Ismail Haisham Rasheed, Ahmed Zihan Ismail, Mohamed Dhifraan, Hassan Shifaz, Ismail Rasheed and Hussain Ziyad. They were charged with premeditated murder with a sharp object.
Only Haisham and Zihan were found guilty. The lower court's acquittals of Ismail Rasheed and Mohamed Dhifran were appealed at the high court. It was decided not to appeal the acquittals of the other two.
After assuming office, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih formed a presidential commission to investigate unresolved murders. The three suspects charged with terrorism were arrested after the commission's investigation last year.
