MP Riyaz' hearing scheduled after defence calls for charges to be dropped

Criminal Court has scheduled a hearing for the case against MP Abdulla Riyaz on obstruction charges for 15:00 on Tuesday.

MP Riyaz is facing obstruction charges for 'refusing to allow access' to his mobile phone. In the previous hearing, held on 11th May, Riyaz’s legal team had asked that the charges be dropped citing several discrepancies in evidence presented by the prosecution.

READ MORE: Inaccuracies in forensic report, defence to ask PG to retract charges

On the night of 27th March, Riyaz had reportedly been walking down Maaveyo magu, of which the first half is not very well-lit, when two men – not in uniform – had showed him a warrant and asked him to handover his mobile phone.

Riyaz refused on the grounds that the street was too dark for him to read the supposed warrant, and that he had been attacked on that very road before and so was hesitant to indulge their request.

The parliamentarian, who had served as police commissioner himself, said that the officers had forcefully taken his phone from him.

On the next day, Riyaz had reportedly been shown a warrant stipulating that he reveal the passcode to the phone, which was now switched off.

MP Riyaz said that he never switches his phone off, and always unlocks it using fingerprint access. However, after the police had confiscated it and asked him to unlock it, the phone had been switched off and

Riyaz, because he almost never uses it, could not recall the passcode required for initial unlocking after start-up.

He had then given them three different passcodes, which were all incorrect. The police have been investigating allegations that opposition parliamentarians had threatened and bribed pro-government MPs, and

Riyaz’s mobile phone is reportedly evidence in their investigation.