May 6 attack: witnesses presented by Thahmeen to be accepted

The High Court has decided to accept the defence witnesses provided by Thahmeen Ahmed, stating that he was not present at the scene of the crime when the assassination attempt on the life of Speaker of Parliament and Former President Mohamed Nasheed was carried out on 6 May 2021.

The state has raised four charges against Thahmeen, which have been presented to the Criminal Court.

The charges raised against him include involvement in a terrorist attack, being involved in planning a terrorist attack, helping to transport an explosive and supporting a terrorist organization.

He was given a legal warning on the grounds that the case pertains to the planting of an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) to a blue Honda Wave motorcycle registered in his name in Hulhumalé on May 3, bringing it to the capital Malé City on May 5 and placing it at the scene of the crime on May 6.

He was charged for installing the IED on the blue Honda Wave motorcycle registered under his name and using it to attack the parliament speaker, on May 6.

Due to this, he had defended himself by stating that he was not present at the scene of the crime that day.

At the time the case was proceeding at the lower court, the lower court had accepted the prosecution’s request to reject Shammoon Rasheed and Mohamed Zoomal Zareer presented as witnessed by the defendant in the case.

The High Court dismissed the state’s request seeking rejection of the witnesses, on the grounds that the lower court had accepted it in violation of judicial and legal mandate.

The prosecution state that while the documents were handed over to Thahmeen after the case documents were submitted to court, if he wanted to defend his absence at the scene from that exact point onwards, it was his responsibility to provide the information.

The state also pointed out that if he wanted to take the defence of not being present at the scene of the crime, it should have been taken up at the earliest possible time

T.he High Court stated that there was no room to declare the two witnesses produced by Thahmeen, could not be accepted.

The verdict was issued by Judge Fathmath Farheeza, Judge Hassan Shafeeu and Jude Huzaifa Mohamed.

Maldives Police Service earlier revealed that 10 suspects had been arrested in connection with the case. Shortly after the attack on 6 May 2021. Authorities had announced plans to bring in foreign investigators to assist in the investigation. As such, a team from the Australian Federal Police assisted in the probe, as well as American experts.

Nasheed was targeted in an assassination attempt on 6 May 2021, as he was heading out to attend an event in an island. The attack, which saw a remote-controlled IED explode near his residence in the center of congested Malé City, 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, which was dubbed far more powerful than a similar explosion in Sultan Park, in 2007.

The shrapnel pieces from the bomb blast caused immense 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 a fatality. Speaker Nasheed underwent 16 hours of life-saving surgery at ADK hospital.

Nasheed returned to Maldives in October 2021, after nearly five months abroad.