Detained Supreme Court justices not interested in appealing remand
They had expressly stated disinterest in appealing the Criminal Court sentence
Detained Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed alights a speed boat on which he was transferred from his holding cell to capital city Malé for an earlier remand hearing
Detained Supreme Court justices Abdulla Saeed and Ali Hameed, who are both facing allegations of terrorism among other charges, have decided not to appeal their remand sentence.
The two justices were sentenced to remand until sentencing, over said terror charges, on March 21st and the period provided to appeal has now passed.
Their lawyers have individually told RaajjeMV that they had expressly stated disinterest in appealing the Criminal Court sentence to keep them in incarceration, though the reason for it is yet unclear.
Other practitioners in legal professions have expressed concern about the judicial proceedings that preceded the sentence, and some have questioned the validity of a Supreme Court judge being tried at the Criminal Court.
Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and justice Ali Hameed were arrested in early February on allegations of accepting bribes, while at the Supreme Court premises. Attorney General Mohamed Anil had then conveyed the president’s message that the arrests were part of the government’s moves to foil a ‘judicial coup’.
