Criminal Court halts accepting cases until end of the year

The Criminal Court has suspended accepting new cases until the end of the year.

Spokesperson for the court Ahmed Mohamed Manik told Sun Online that the court would not be accepting any cases from 15 to 31 December 2014, and that this has been the court’s practice for many years. He said that the purpose was to complete its year-end administrative reports.

Cases can be filed to the Criminal Court for prosecution only by the Prosecutor General - unless an individual is arrested unlawfully, in which case a case may be lodged to the court by any interested party.

Criminal Court is the only court in the Maldives which has the jurisdiction to process murder charges against suspects aged 18 and above, and terrorism charges.