Parliament has approved Justice Ahmed Abdulla Didi’s appointment to the position of vacated Supreme Court Chief of Justice seat at the sitting held on Wednesday night.
The Parliament, heavily believed to be run by puppets of the current administration, had passed to appoint Justice Didi as Supreme Court Chief of Justice with the majority vote of 36 members.
At the sitting, High Court judge Abdul Ghani along with High Court Judge Abdulla Didi’s names were also passed for appointment at the recently vacated seats in the Supreme Court bench with a wide majority.
The appointment of Dr. Didi, which was previously approved by the parliamentary review committee, comes following the Criminal Court’s guilty verdict on ex-Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Justice Ali Hameed.
The Judicial Service Commission of the Maldives had sent the names of all three Justices for parliament approval upon the Supreme Court having found Justices Saeed and Hameed guilty of influencing lower court rulings for which they have since been initially sentenced to one year, seven months and six days in prison which was reduced by the High Court to one year, two months and 12 days upon appeals being filed.
Dr. Ahmed Abdulla Didi has been serving as a justice of the Supreme Court since August 2010. He previously served senior positions such as Counsel General at the Parliament as well as Attorney General in 2008 when he had received a PhD.
Dr. Didi, native to Addu City’s Hithadhoo had obtained his higher education in Egypt’s Al-Azhar University and specializes in Public International Law as well as Constitutional Law.
Abdul Ghani, whose name has also been sent for approval for the Supreme Court bench, had been working as a judge at the High Court since 2004, having served as a chief judge from 2008 – 2011.
High Court Judge Abdulla Didi was appointed to the bench in June 2015 and previously served at the Gaaf Alif Dhehvadhoo and Kaafu Dhiffushi Courts as well as the Juvenile Court. He was also one of the three judges at the Criminal Court bench when former President Mohamed Nasheed’s prison sentence was issued.
