Judge rejects nearly all evidence presented against MP Faris

The Criminal Court judge presiding over the bribery allegations put forth against MP Faris Maumoon has decided not to accept the evidence prosecutors presented against him at Tuesday's hearing.

MP Faris, who represents the Dhiggaru constituency, is accused of bribing lawmakers ahead of a motion he proposed in parliament to impeach speaker Abdulla Maseeh.

At Tuesday’s sitting, the prosecution presented an audio recording involving a man named Ahmed Shafiu, a forensic analysis report of his mobile phone, and his statement to the police.

Shafiu is a man alleged by the prosecution to have been responsible for physically carrying sums of money as bribes to lawmakers, at the orders of MP Faris.

At Tuesday’s hearing, the prosecution first presented the analysis of said audio recording along with testimony from the police officer who carried it out.

However, MP Faris’ defence noted that the audio recording, extracted from a video, was not in adherance to procedure and is therefore inadmissible.

Judge Ahmed Hailam decided not to accept the recording and its transcript, and to not hear the testimony of the officer who analyzed it.

Prosecution then presented a report from the evidence found on Shafiu’s phone and testimony of the forensics officer who compiled it.

The defence then noted that the report carried misinformation, makings its validity questionable. They said the prosecution had had enough time to amend the error but failed to do so.

While the lawmaker’s lawyers had asked the judge to not accept the report, Judge Hailam had decided to hear testimony from the officer who compiled it.

The witness testified that there are two inaccurate dates on the report due to a ‘typing error’, which has not been amended.

Judge Hailam decided at Monday’s hearing to not summon Shafiu as a witness, which the defence cited as reason not to accept his statement to the police.

The statement was presented as evidence at Tuesday’s hearing, but Faris’ legal representatives argued that accepting his statement as evidence without producing him in court could affect the fairness of the judicial proceedings.

At Monday’s hearing, MP Ahmed ‘Qaaree’ Rasheed, whom they allege Shafiu carried the bribes to, denied ever being offered a sum of money by the defendant. Rasheed previously claimed that he signed the motion to impeach the speaker under duress.

The prosecution has presented a total of 11 witnesses against the parliamentarian but the judge has refused to accept eight of them.