May 6 attack: Criminal Court orders to protect evidence as requested by the government

The Criminal Court has ordered to protect the evidence submitted regarding the assassination attempt on the life of current Speaker of Parliament and Former President Mohamed Nasheed on May 6, 2021, as requested by the government prosecutors.

A hearing of the case was held at the Criminal Court on Sunday, where both the government prosecutors and defense discussed the government's request to order evidence protection, as well as the previous submissions regarding the case.

As such, the government prosecutors requested to protect the secret witnesses, and not to disclose the CDs which holds the video recordings of the witnesses' interviews. The government prosecutors also requested not to disclose photo sets that were used to identify the suspects.

Additionally, the prosecutors requested not to disclose the investigation report of the case and a statement by a witness from the Maldives National Defense Force. The government prosecutors highlighted that if the evidence were to be made public and available, it may put the witnesses in harm’s way, and give the suspects the opportunity to tamper with the evidence.

Moreover, the state highlighted that these evidences include information that could be a threat to national security, as well.

Secondly, the state prosecutors requested to partially disclose some evidence submitted regarding the case. As such, they requested to only publicize some of the information provided in the police intel reports, financial assessment reports and call records of the suspects.

The government prosecutors stated that they have no issues with these being made available under certain conditions set by the Criminal Court for those who would come to the court and go through them.

Additionally, the state requested for the same treatment for the 5 books submitted as evidence against one of the suspects, Thahmeen, as these are information that could lead to extremist ideas.

The defense questioned why some evidence were being partially disclosed and others not disclosed at all, when all of the evidence were submitted regarding the same case. They also questioned why some of these evidences were made available to go through at the court when those could be copied and used outside of the court. This is a question that has been brought up by the defense in various other cases as well.

After weighing the points made by both the state prosecutors and the defense, the judges bench decided to order the evidence protection requested by the state.

The judges preceding over this case at the Criminal Court are Judge Adam Mohamed, Judge Sofwath Habeeb and Judge Mohamed Misbaah.

The next hearing of this case is scheduled to May 30, 2022.

The former president, Nasheed was targeted in an assassination attempt on 6 May 2021, as he was heading out to his car to go attend an event in an island. The attack, was given using a remote-controlled IED, which was made to explode near his residence in the center of Malé City.

The attack caused serious injuries to the ex-president who was rushed to the hospital within seven minutes after being knocked to the ground by the blast. Authorities said this attack was far more powerful than the explosion in Sultan Park, in 2007, the first IED explosion in Male City.

The shrapnel pieces from the bomb blast caused considerable damage to Nasheed's internal organs, but had missed some vital arteries and organs. A shrapnel piece struck his rib, which otherwise would have struck his heart, leading to fatality, the doctors had said.

Speaker Nasheed underwent 16 hours of life-saving surgery at ADK hospital, after which he sought further treatment in Germany and also later in the United Kingdom.

The ex-president returned home in October 2021, after nearly five months abroad for treatment and follow-up.