The Criminal Court has on Sunday decided that the charges of obstructing a law enforcement officer raised against opposition MP Abdulla Riyaz cannot be proven.
The judges had acquitted MP Riyaz, who also serves as the deputy leader of the Jumhooree Party, of all obstruction charges raised against on the April 12th.
Judge Ahmed Shakeel had raised the point that the police had taken Riyaz into custody unlawfully, in violation of the Parliamentary Privileges Act’s Clause 13 – which disallows holding a parliamentarian in custody without liability.
At the concluding hearing, Riyaz’s defence had asked for deffered prosecution with the Prosecutor General’s office, which it had denied.
On 2nd April, MP Riyaz announced that he was facing allegations for refusing to allow officers to access his mobile phone.
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 reveals 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 ahead of the, now failed, vote of no-confidence against parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh.
