Criminal Court Judges Abdul Baaree Yoosuf and Ahmed Shakeel have been transferred to Juvenile Court and Family Court, respectively.

Judge Baaree, who had in the past toed the Government line when it came to trials of opposition figures, was transferred following his summons to the Judicial Services Commission (JSC) on Monday.

His transfer also came after Criminal Court had rejected the three cases against Qasim Ibrahim, leader of Jumhooree Party and Maamigili Constituency MP. Judge Baaree was part of the bench that reviewed case. The case was rejected after PG lawyers had failed to attend session.

Judge Ahmed Shakeel was transferred following the same meeting of the Commission held on Monday.

JSC said the decision to transfer the Judges was a unanimous one. JSC added that they had taken in Supreme Court’s request for the transfer into account prior to making a decision. However, JSC had not revealed why the two were transferred.

Judge Baaree had sat on several high-profile cases such as, cases on former President Mohamed Nasheed, former Defense Minister Colonel (Rtd) Mohamed Nazim, Adhaalath Party Leader Sheikh Imran Abdullah, former Prosecutor General Muhthaz Muhsin, ADh. Maamigili Court Senior Magistrate Ahmed Nihan and former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb.