The High Court has annulled a Juvenile Court ruling against the minor accused of having murdered a 76-year-old man in Kudahuvadhoo island of Dhaalu atoll.
Two minors were arrested and convicted of having murdered Ali ‘Ayyube’ Hassan in December, 2012. Ayyube was found murdered, fatally stabbed, on January 8th, 2012.
While they were minors at the time, all those charged for the murder are now legal adults. One of the two convicted for the crime had appealed the Juvenile Court ruling with the High Court.
The High Court decided in its hearing this week that given how the Juvenile Court’s conviction was based on the defendants’ own testimony, which they have since retracted with no external means of reestablishing what was revealed in said testimony, that the defendant who filed the case is acquitted.
Nine of Ayyube’s 10 closest of kin had stated in court that they wish to have those convicted for the murder given the death penalty.
