Haisham given 10 days to appoint lawyer

Ismail Haisham Rasheed, one of the individuals on trial for the murder of blogger and social media activist Yameen Rasheed, has been given 10 days to appoint a lawyer.

He was given 10 days to appoint a new lawyer as his lawyer, Abdullah Haseen, was currently under suspension. The preliminary hearings of the case were cancelled for day.

The hearings of the case had been closed off to media and public, on request of Prosecutor General (PG). PG Office said that only certain hearings are to be closed off to public.

Charges had been raised against seven individuals in connection to the murder but only six are currently on trial.

Ahmed Zihan heading into hearingsCaption

The six are; Hussain Ziyad, Ismail Haisham Rasheed, Ismail Rasheed, Hassan Shifaz, Mohamed Dhifran and Ahmed Zihan Ismail.

They are charged with first-degree murder, while the seventh suspect is charged with accessory to murder.

According to the Maldives Police Sevice, Ismail Rasheed, Ismail Haisham Rasheed and Ahmed Zihan Ismail had been actively involved in the killing.

Ismail Rasheed heading into hearingsCaption

Yameen Rasheed was found stabbed to death on the stairwell of his residence, M. Spatula, in the early hours on the 23rd of April.

Police said that they had, in their investigation, analyzed over 1,850 hours video footage and 40,000 individuals between the ages of 20-40.

One of the most prominent bloggers in the country and a pro-democracy activist, Yameen Rasheed had been the biggest campaigner in the search for missing journalist Ahmed Rilwan.

However, MPS has said that their investigation did not show any links between Rilwan's abduction and Yameen's murder.