MP Riyaz's postponed hearing scheduled for Thursday

Criminal Court has again scheduled the postponed hearing for the obstruction charges against opposition MP Abdulla Riyaz for Thursday.

The hearing is to be held at 03:00 pm.

While the hearing was earlier scheduled for 8:00 am on Tuesday, the court has scheduled and cancelled it twice this week.

Riyaz is being charged with obstruction of police justice after he allegedly refused to provide officers access to his mobile phone.

Riyaz has denied the charges, and another hearing has been cancelled due to reported failure of state to provide the parliamentarian’s defence with a piece of evidence against him.

Police attempted to confiscate MP Riyaz’s phone as part of their investigation allegations that opposition parliamentarians had threatened and bribed pro-government MPs ahead of the now failed vote of no-confidence against parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh.