Court rules MP Nazim cannot be accepted as a state witness in Aarah case

A hearing regarding the V. Aarah case was held at the Criminal Court on Monday.

Sharing details regarding the hearing, an official from the Prosecutor General’s Office told RaajjeMV that Monday's session was scheduled to deliver rulings on pretrial motions.

During the presentation of pre-trial motions, State Prosecutor Ahmed Shafeeu requested the court to reject several oral witnesses produced by the defense. These witnesses were proposed by President Yameen's legal team to testify that the transaction in question was a legitimate currency exchange involving the purchase of US dollars.

The state has submitted a pretrial motion requesting the court to reject the defense presented by Yameen regarding the currency exchange transactions.

The state prosecutor argued that if the transaction truly pertained to a currency exchange, there was no reason for the defendant to remain silent during the investigation. The lawyer further noted that throughout the proceedings in both the lower court and the High Court, President Yameen’s legal team failed to provide a valid reason for believing that any statements made during the investigation would be used against him.

The court has accepted the proposal.

Among the motions submitted by Yameen was a request to exclude several state witnesses. From these submissions, the court accepted only the motion seeking to disqualify Ahmed Nazim, the Member of Parliament for the Dhiggaru constituency, as a witness in the Aarah case.

Judge Ali Nadeem is presiding over this case at the Criminal Court. During this hearing, the state also proceeded with the presentation of its summary statement regarding the R. Fuggiri matter.

Consequently, the next stage in the Fuggiri case will be the presentation of the closing statements by the defense.