The judge presiding over Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed’s trial on obstruction was replaced without the knowledge of the current presiding judge, it has been confirmed in Sunday’s preliminary hearing.

Judge Ahmed Hailam was first assigned to the Chief Justice’s preliminary hearings but was replaced by Judge Ibrahim Ali.

In the second preliminary hearing on Sunday, lawyer Hisaan Hussain, representing the Chief Justice, requested the court to disclose the reason behind replacing the judge and on whether he was replaced with the state’s knowledge.

Judge Ibrahim Ali replied that he was not aware that a preliminary hearing was held before. After he said this, a court employee walked over to him and explained what had happened the in the first preliminary hearing.

Afterwards, Judge Ibrahim Ali said the employee has confirmed that a previous hearing had taken place but added that the case has been filed to his section for the first time and that the records did not show that another judge had handled the case before.

While the defense repeatedly requested him to disclose the reason why the first judge was replaced, Judge Ali only replied that he will be presiding over the case “from start to finish”.

Responding to defense lawyer Hisaan Hussain’s question on whether the state requested the change in judge, state prosecutor Shamla Shameem said that it was not the type of question that can be asked of the state.

Chief Justice Saeed was charged with obstruction of state duties for allegedly ordering court employees to shut down the Government E-Letter Management (GEM) network system on February 4 and 5.

During the hearing, the judge asked Chief Justice Saeed whether he was clear on the obstruction charge against him, to which lawyer Noorul Salam Aboobakur, from his legal team, said they were not clear on which article of the penal code he was charged on. He also said that some of the case documents have not been given to the defense.

Sunday’s hearing continued from 6:30pm to 8:30pm and was concluded after Judge Ali ordered that the witness testimonies be made secret.