High Court overturns registrar’s dismissal of drug smuggling appeal
The case was dismissed because the MVR 300 registration fee had not been paid within the stipulated deadline.
A bench of the High Court on Sunday overturned the Registrar’s decision to dismiss an appeal filed by the state in a case involving the alleged smuggling of 72 kilogrammes of drugs into the Maldives.
The Criminal Court had acquitted three men in January last year. The Prosecutor General’s Office appealed the decision in July, but the High Court Registrar rejected the appeal.
According to the Registrar’s letter, signed by Mariyam Hurshida, the case was dismissed because the MVR 300 registration fee had not been paid within the stipulated deadline.
However, the Prosecutor General’s Office argued that it had not received any notice regarding the payment deadline. The office stated that the notice had been sent to an employee who was on leave at the time, and that official notices must be sent through a designated official email address. The state therefore appealed the Registrar’s decision to a bench of three judges.
The bench unanimously ruled to quash the Registrar’s decision and ordered that the appeal be registered within three days.
The judgment stated that the Prosecutor General’s Office had not neglected to pay the fee but had not been properly informed of the payment requirement. The court noted that the email was not sent through the designated channel, even though the office had provided a specific address for correspondence regarding the appeal.
The ruling also observed that it was neither fair nor responsible to impose a payment deadline without ensuring the notice had reached the correct recipient. The bench attributed the issue to an administrative error within the court system, further noting that confusion arose as the Prosecutor General’s Office used multiple email addresses for document sharing at different stages of the case.
Case Background
The case originated in December 2020 when a boat named Masjari 2 was allegedly used to smuggle drugs into the Maldives. Following a sea operation, police recovered the drugs from a vehicle in Malé.
Criminal Court Judge Ibrahim Ihsan presided over the trial and acquitted the accused in January last year. His ruling cited several deficiencies in the prosecution’s evidence, including:
-
Errors in the video and image analysis reports, which included misidentified photographs, undermining their credibility.
-
The absence of verified court orders authorising the collection of telecommunications data, and uncertainty over who prepared the call charts.
-
Lack of oral evidence to confirm the authenticity or procedural validity of intelligence reports.
-
Forensic reports that did not establish any link between the accused and the drugs seized.
-
Insufficient evidence to connect one of the accused, Irfan, to the drugs or the vessel involved.
The court also noted that while a Thiraya brand satellite phone was found on Masjari 2, the mere discovery of an empty phone box in Irfan’s residence did not establish that the drugs were smuggled from the vessel. The state, the court concluded, had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
