High Court concludes hearings for MP Mahloof's appeal

The High Court has concluded its proceedings for the appeal MP Ahmed Mahloof filed asking to overturn the consecutive jail sentences against him on obstruction charges.

At the hearing on Thursday, Mahloof’s defence stated that the ruling was passed based on a single witness testimony. However, this claim was denied by the prosecution.

The other testimonies, all from police officers who had heard of Mahloof’s alleged obstruction through their intercom, are hearsay, the defence further argued.

Mahloof’s lawyers had also noted that several of the witnesses put forth by the defence had been omitted from the sentence, therefore making the sentence unjust.

To this, the prosecution had said that it is within the court’s authority to summon or omit witnesses and that this does constitute the sentence being unlawful.

While the High Court had concluded the proceedings for the case, the court will then adjourn to pass a sentence on the appeal.

Mahloof was sentenced to two consecutive sentences amount to 10 months and 24 days on obstruction of police justice. He has already served the first six-month prison.

He is currently serving the second part of sentence and will be released in June. However, MP Mahloof’s family has also raised concern that the appeal process to overturn his sentence is yet to be follow through.

Mahloof is an independent parliamentarian who has been working with the opposition. Prior to his sentencing, he was also the spokesperson of the opposition alliance, Maldives United Opposition (MUO). The largest opposition party in the country, Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has filed Mahloof's case in Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU).

The High Court had begun proceedings two months after MP Mahloof had already served the first of the sentences against him.