State suspects Faaris of bribing one MP

The state has said that they suspect the MP for Dhiggaru constituency, Ahmed Faaris Maumoon of bribing one MP.

Delivering the charges at the hearing of the trial, the state prosecutor said that when the parliament decided that 42 signatures will be required for no confidence motion against the Speaker of the parliament on 10 April 2017, MP Faaris bribed another MP to acquire the 42 signatures for a no confidence motion.

Faaris responded that the charges aren't clear since they do not include the date, place and amount of the alleged bribe.

To which the state prosecutor responded that a date on which the bribing took place is not on any document since the police investigation has not bee able to find that information but the bribing took place after 10 April.

She said that even without the information of the date, the statement given to the police by the MP who received the bribe proves that it took place.

The state has offered nine articles of evidence. They include two police officers, an A4 paper with the names of MPs, an the audio recording and transcript of a conversation of the suspect, Mohamed Shaafiu and another person and the audio analysis report and mobile forensic report from the police.

The evidence articles also include the photos and text messages related to the case found on the phone of the Shaafiu, a member of the Jumhooree Party.

At the hearing today, Faaris had refused the charges against him under Article 510-D in reference to 510-B of the Penal Code.

If convicted, he will serve a sentence of three years, two months and 12 days.

The court has given until 17 October 2017 to present the preliminary documents and articles of the trial.

After that, the first hearing in the trial will be at 10 a.m. on 24 October.

When the state requested that MP Faaris be in remand until the trial, the judge said that there is no need to detain him in a case like this.