Rilwan's abduction: hearing cancelled on defence's request
Rilwan was last seen on 8th August 2014
Journalist Ahmed Rilwan has been missing since August 2014
Thursday’s hearing over journalist Ahmed Rilwan’s abduction has been cancelled, over failure to produce witnesses to court.
While the hearing was scheduled for 3pm, it was cancelled on the defence’s request.
While three are charged with the abduction, the trial is being carried over two of the accused as a third suspect- Mohamed Suaid- is believed to have died after fleeing to Syria to join the internal conflict there.
The court is trying Aalif Rauf and Mohamed Nooradeen, According to the charges raised against them, they are accused of abducting Rilwan in front of his residence in Hulhumalé, on 8th August 2014. However, both of the accused remain free.
Journalist Rilwan was last seen in the early hours on 8th of August 2014 and is believed to have been abducted outside his apartment building in Hulhumalé. Over 600 days after Rilwan’s disappearance, police said that there were links between his disappearance and an abduction reported outside his apartment that night.
Police have said that on the night of Rilwan's disappearance, they had received a report of an individual being forced into a red car in Hulhumalé, but that the car was gone by the time they reached there. Police later said the car was registered under Aalif’s name, and that it had been taken into Hulhumalé illegally.
One of the two witnesses produced to court at the last hearing had testified to seeing Nooradeen driving a red car around the time Rilwan went missing, even recounting to court that he had been told that the car belonged to Rauf. Both said witnesses used to work with Nooradeen in Hulhumalé.
