Ameen sentenced to 27 years in prison on 2 terrorism convictions
Ameen is also accused of the Sultan Park bombing, in which he fled the country after being arrested.
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By
Fathmath Ahmed Shareef
Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced Mohamed Ameen, a man police say is the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Maldives, to 27 years in prison.
The trial of the terrorism charges against Ameen resumed in the Criminal Court, on 9 October 2021.
The hearings were held in secret in the Criminal Court.
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Charged with participation in a terrorist organization
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Charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism
The Criminal Court on Wednesday sentenced him to 27 years in jail. Details of the verdict are yet to be released as the case was conducted in secrecy. However, as confirmed to Atoll Times, he was sentenced with:
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10 years for participating in a terrorist group
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17 years for conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism
However, he has already spent 3 years, 11 months and nine days in custody in this case, and was sentenced to 23 years and 11 months in prison for the remainder.
Ameen was the first person to be arrested and prosecuted under the sweeping amendments to the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He is also the first Maldivian to be included in the US Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) terrorist list.
Ameen is also accused of the Sultan Park bombing, in which he fled the country after being arrested. He was arrested in Sri Lanka and released in 2012 after being held in custody for two months.
After that:
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He was arrested, and police have accused Ameen of sending locals to Hurasan, Afghanistan, to join ISIS; He is the leader of ISIS in Maldives, the prosecution told the court
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16 September 2020 - High Court orders his release after six years in custody during Criminal Court hearings; The charges against him were also dismissed on the grounds that the charges against him were not filed within the time limit
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October 3, 2021 - Supreme Court rules that he was wrongly dismissed and acquitted.
