MP Abdulla Riyaz summoned to Criminal Court for hearing over obstruction charges

MP Abdulla Riyaz has been summoned to the Criminal Court in relation to the obstruction charges he is currently facing.

The parliamentarian was summoned on Sunday, at 10:30 am. RaajjeMV understands that this is the last hearing for the case and that the judge is to pass his verdict.

He had received the summon just over an hour before the hearing, at around 9:20 am, Riyaz's family said.

The Prosecutor General’s office had rejected his request for deferred prosecution last month.

On the night of 27th March, Riyaz had 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. He had then given them three different passcodes, which were all incorrect. Riyaz's phone is reportedly evidence in an investigation into allegations that opposition parliamentarians had threatened and bribed pro-government MPs.