Man charged with setting fire on 3 boats in Kendhoo

Suspected arsonist, Abdul Salaam Yoosuf from Morning House in B. Kendhoo has been charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act for setting fire to two boats and one speedboat docked in Kendhoo.

Abdul Salaam denied the charge when it was read to him by State prosecution during the hearing held at Criminal Court this Wednesday.

Abdul Salaam attended the court with his defense lawyer.

The hearing was concluded with Judge Ahmed Shakeel announcing that both the prosecution and the defense were now allowed to submit their list of evidence.

Abdul Salaam was released from police custody back in May, 2015 when he was taken to A. A. Maalhos Magistrate Court for his remand hearing.

The fiberglass speedboat “Fehi Vina”, the 40-foot boat “Saraka” and the 70-foot boat “Hoara” were set on fire during the early hours of April 23, 2015.

The boat owners estimate the total cost of the damage to be MVR 4.3 million.

Owner of the biggest boat “Hoara”, Abdul Muhsin reported to “Sun” that the cost of the boat was MVR 2.5 million.

He said that he had taken a loan to build the boat.

“…This is our family business, with the involvement of us five siblings. We built the boat by taking a loan. The boat is not even a year old. This is a huge loss. An unrecoverable loss,” said Abdul Muhsin.

He said the boat wasn’t insured.

Moosa Jameel, who spoke on behalf of the owner of “Saraka” said the boat was built at the cost of MVR 780,000. And that the boat had expensive fighting equipment in it when it was set on fire.

Owner of the speed boat “Fehi Vina”, Aboobakr said that the boat was built at the cost of MVR 1 million, and that it wasn’t insured.