Sun Poll: 70% believe Supreme Court judges’ ouster was politically motivated

An overwhelming majority of the Maldivian public believes the criminal investigation that led to the ouster of three Supreme Court judges last year – an investigation the authorities recently closed due to lack of any evidence – was politically motivated.

On last week’s Sun Poll, we asked the question:

The ouster of three Supreme Court judges who were later cleared of any wrongdoing: What was the purpose?

Results show that 70.4 percent of voters believe the judges were deliberately ousted to serve a political purpose.

Meanwhile, 15.2 percent voted that the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) and the Parliament acted fairly, while 14.4 percent agreed the judges were treated unfairly.

On February 26, 2025, then-Supreme Court judges Dr. Azmiralda Zahir, Mahaz Ali Zahir and Husnu Al-Suood were suspended by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), citing an ongoing investigation by the against them by the ACC. All three were hearing a case challenging the controversial move by the ruling People's National Congress (PNC) to write anti-defection clauses into the Maldivian constitution. It also came shortly after the ruling PNC used its supermajority in the Parliament to push through amendments to the Judicature Act to downsize the Supreme Court bench from seven to five justices - a bill that was later tabled following public backlash.

Suood resigned from the top court in protest of JSC’s decision, and the commission later opened misconduct cases against Azmiralda and Mahaz, accusing them of conspiring to influence the Criminal Court. Azmiralda and Mahaz - both of whom have maintained that the allegations against them were baseless and that the investigations by the JSC were tainted by the denial of due process to them - were dismissed by the Parliament with majority votes of 68-11 on May 14, 2025.

The case against them stemmed from the allegation that they exerted their influence over the Criminal Court to secure the release of Azmiralda’s husband, Dr. Ismail Latheef, an anesthesiologist, who was arrested during a police raid on a massage parlor in Male’. However, Criminal Court judge Ibrahim Zihunee’s statement to JSC shows Mahaz had called him after Latheef was already released from police custody.

Meanwhile, the then-assistant registrar of High Court, Hussain Mohamed Haneef, who testified against Azmiralda and Mahaz at the JSC, was later appointed to a senior position at state-run utility company, Fenaka Corporation.

President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, whose administration was accused of deliberately undermining the country’s judicial independence, denied these claims, describing the events that fueled the allegations as mere “coincidences.”

ACC remained tight-lipped over its investigation into the case. When questioned in February regarding the delay in the investigation, a spokesperson from the commission told Sun that they were treating the case as a special priority, but declined to disclose any details. The ACC added that it has a legal obligation to investigate corruption allegations submitted to the commission, irrespective of who was being accused.

But in early October, the authorities decided to drop the investigation into the corruption allegations, citing lack of evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.