A hearing in the murder case of blogger and social media activist Yameen Rasheed who was found slain on the stairwell of his home has been cancelled.
The hearing which was scheduled at 11:00 on Thursday morning was cancelled without the court having given a specific reason for the cancellation.
Preliminary hearings are currently being scheduled in the murder case of the blogger at the Criminal Court before the trial begins under the criminal procedure act. Hearings in the case have been proceeding since the 10th of September 2017 and are being held behind closed doors at the request of the state prosecutor.
Following the decision to hold the trial behind closed doors, the blogger's family, friends and well-wishers as well as the public had raised immense concerns.
A total of eight suspects are being charged with the slaying of an individual with the use of a lethal weapon. They are Ismail Haisham Rasheed, Hussain Ziyad, Thaaif Ismail Rasheed, Hassan Shifaz, Mohamed Dhifran and Ahmed Zihan Ismail.
On the hearing held on the 08th of November 2017, Haisham, Dhifran, Shifaz and Zihan had denied the charges levied against them.
According to legal representatives of Ismail and Ziyad, the charges against them are baseless and the charges do not provide evidence in what both of them had done to murder Yameen.
Yameen was attacked as he had entered his home after work at around 02:30 a.m on the 23rd of April, by two men while a third waited outside as a lookout. Yameen had over 30 stab wounds on his chest, neck and throat. CCTC footage shows everything that happened in Maafannu Spatula that night.
While Yameen’s family have been continually calling for authorities to bring his perpetrators to justice, the slow paces investigation of the Maldives Police Service (MPS), refusal to provide information and the following of court processed against his accused slayers have been a concern for both the public and the international community.
According to sources, Prosecutor General Aishath Bisham had since assured the slain blogger’s family that the authorities will provide opportunity for family and legal representatives in the case to be able to sit in court proceedings.
