Criminal Court has suspended lawyer Nazim Abdul Sattar, barring him from representing MP Ahmed Mahloof in court.

According to the court, Nazim was suspended over a tweet, and has only been suspended from Mahloof’s case.

It accused Nazim of tweeting in manner that ‘misleads’ the public, regarding the parliamentarian’s case, as well as using social media to ‘influence’ the case.

Hence, the court said that Nazim has been suspended from the case, from April 24 onwards.

The case is also over a tweet the parliamentarian had sent out, with the authorities accusing him of ‘giving out false information to a law enforcement agency’.

While he had tweeted in Dhivehi, it translates to “detainees are not dying in Maafushi Prison, they are being killed. They are being killed by without providing the necessary medical attention. When 10 detainees die within a year, it is an issue. Commissioner Shiyan and DOP Salman must take full responsibility. I do not know how many times I received this complaint while I was jailed”.

At the preliminary hearing held on Monday, presiding Judge Adam Ali determined that there is sufficient evidence to raise the charge against the lawmaker, and decided to go ahead with the trial.

The Criminal Court has also scheduled hearings over two more cases against the Galolhu-South constituency MP- over allegations of terrorism and for submitting false reports to a law enforcement body- for Wednesday.