High Court orders retrial in Yameen Rasheed murder case
Two men were convicted by the Criminal Court and later appealed their convictions to the High Court.
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The High Court on Wednesday ordered the Criminal Court to quash and reconsider the convictions in the case relating to the fatal stabbing of blogger Yameen Rasheed.
Six people were charged by the prosecution in the case. Two men were convicted by the Criminal Court and later appealed their convictions to the High Court. They are:
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Ismail Haisham Rasheed, H. Annaarumage
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Ahmed Zihan Ismail, Lot 11399, Hulhumalé
Five years after the killing, the Prosecutor General’s Office appealed the acquittal of two of the four defendants who were cleared by the Criminal Court. The two men are:
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Mohamed Dhifran, Sindhubaadhuge/GDh. Gadhdhoo
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Ismail Rasheed, M. Thaif
On Wednesday, the High Court ruled on both appeals. In its judgment, the court quashed the convictions of Haisham and Zihan and ordered the Criminal Court to conduct a retrial. The High Court directed the lower court to determine several issues, including:
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Whether a letter sent to the court, claiming that a secret witness identified a defendant under police coercion, was genuinely written by the witness
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If the letter is found to be valid, whether the witness’s earlier testimony should be accepted
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If the testimony is accepted, whether further questioning should be conducted, with appropriate protective measures, to clarify the earlier identification
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If the testimony is rejected, whether it should be excluded from the record
In a separate ruling, the High Court also overturned the Criminal Court’s acquittal of Dhifran and Ismail Rasheed and ordered a retrial. The Criminal Court had found that the two men were involved in the murder but did not impose sentences, as they were not charged with participation in the killing.
The prosecution argued on appeal that the trial judge had the authority to impose punishment even without a specific charge for participation. The High Court ruled that the exercise of judicial discretion in that regard was not properly applied.
The judgments were delivered by a three-judge bench comprising Hassan Shafiu, Abdul Maniu Hussain and Fathimath Farheeza.
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