Thursday's hearing of Ali Waheed's sexual assault trial cancelled as he seeks online proceedings
Criminal Court's decision in proceeding the trial with online hearing remains unclear
Seven charges were raised against the disgraced ex-minister of tourism, Ali Waheed
A hearing of former Minister of Tourism Ali Waheed’s sexual abuse trial, scheduled for Thursday, has been cancelled.
The cancelation comes as the ex-minister, who faces seven counts of sexual assault charges, had asked for the court trial to proceed online.
The Criminal Court had ordered for Ali Waheed’s passport to be released, after signing a guarantor deal with State Minister at the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment, Assad Ali who signed on as Ali Waheed’s guarantor. After the expiration of the guarantor deal, the Criminal Court had scheduled a hearing for Thursday.
The court cited the guarantor deal to have noted Ali Waheed’s request to proceed the trial through online hearings once the four months of the agreement were up. However, the Criminal Court is yet to announce a decision on the matter.
Speaking to RaajjeMV, the Public Prosecutor at the Prosecutor General’s Office, Ahmed Shafeeu revealed that the Criminal Court had notified the PG Office that the hearing was cancelled as Ali Waheed has requested the trial to proceed via online hearings. Shafeeu went on to note that the PG Office is yet to receive any legal documents presented by Ali Waheed.
Reports indicate that the PG has not approved the request to proceed the hearings online.
Waheed fled the country citing “medical purposes” while on trial, in early February.
Seven charges were raised against the disgraced ex-minister during November 2020, including one count of attempted rape, one count of sexual abuse, one count of indecent exposure, one count of sexual harassment and one count of attempted sexual harassment. He is also charged with two counts of solicitation of sexual favors.
Waheed is accused of sexually assaulting ministry employees during resorts trips, Waheed is also accused to sexually harassing ruling coalition partner, Jumhooree Party (JP) member and Transport Minister Aishath Nahula. JP council proposed to dismiss Ali Waheed as the party’s leader in July.
Following the allegations against Waheed, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih ordered him to resign and consecutively stripped him from the ministerial post after he failed to forward a resignation letter.
The PG Office forwarded the charges against Waheed to the Criminal Court on 18 November 2020.
Speaking to media outside of the police headquarters after being summoned for questioning in 2020, Waheed had said that the sexual assault allegations against him were “politically motivated”, stressing that the truth will be exposed once the investigations were completed and that justice "must be served".
