The police committed contempt of Court: Criminal Court

The Criminal Court has said that the Maldives Police Services committed contempt of court and undermined the authority of the Maldives Judiciary when they failed to produce arrested opposition leader Ahmed “Sandhaanu” Didi at the court yesterday, and failed to attend the court to be held accountable.

The Criminal Court issued a court order yesterday obliging the Police to produce Ahmed Didi, or Sandhaanu Ahammaidhy, as he is commonly known, after his lawyers filed a case requesting the Court to look into the allegedly unlawful arrest of Ahmed Didi by the Government.

While the Police refused to attend the court, they released Ahmed Didi when the hour scheduled for the case filed by his lawyers struck.

In a Press Conference held last night, Criminal Court Registrar Ali Adam said that the Police refused even when they were specifically ordered to attend the court to explain how and why Ahmed Didi was arrested, as it was one of the issues involved in the case filed by Ahmed Didi’s lawyers. “At around 7:45 pm, a police representative who introduced himself as Azeef Abbas called the Court and said that they had released Ahmed Didi and would not attend the court. That is not how anyone should act, and we are deeply concerned about such behavior”, said Ali Adam. He also said that he explained to the police representative that they had to attend to Court to answer the accusations of unlawful arrest, and that Azeef Abbas refused to do so. The Registrar also said a further Court Order was handed over to the Police at 8:24 pm last night, which also was defied by them.

The case was conducted at 8:30, and Abdullah Saeed, and Dr. Hassan Saeed, lawyers for Ahmed Didi, were present on time at the Court, and they waited until 10:00 pm. The Police never showed up.

Media Official Ahmed Muhammad Manik at the Criminal Court also expressed deep concern about the blatant act of contempt of court perpetrated by the Police.

Ahmed Muhammad Manik also said that the Police had released Ismail Hilath Rasheed, a man who was arrested under Court Order, for violations of Act on Religious Unity, without the knowledge of the Court. It is unlawful to release someone under police custody under a court order to be released without the Court’s order to do so.

“The Court ordered Hilath to be kept in detention on the 15th of December, and that was for 10 days. On the 25th of December, another Order was issued by which he was to be kept in detention for addition 15 days. When the period expired, the Police released him without a Court Order, which is against the law, as a person under police custody in this manner can only be released upon the decision of the Court to that effect”, said Manik.

Ismail Hilath Rasheed is a man who calls for what he describes as freedom of religion and gay rights, and who has, for years, bashed Islam and Muhammad the Messenger of Islam with historically unfounded falsehood and extreme hate-speech, without seen any actions against his hateful and false propaganda against Islam in the country.

The Police declined to comment on any of these issues.