While it has been 150 days since his incarceration, former Commissioner of Police and opposition aligned Member of Parliament for Kinbidhoo constituency Abdulla Riyaz remains steadfast and hopeful, says his legal representative.
Speaking about the MP’s incarceration, his lawyer said that it is a concerning matter that the Supreme Court is not looking into the matter of Riyaz’s appeal, while he has already been in prison for one third of the sentence.
The lawyer had stressed that when Maldives Police Service (MPS) had arrested Riyaz at an opposition rally held on the 02nd of March alongside former speaker of Parliament Abdulla Shahid, they had not stated a reason as to why he was being taken into police custody.
Riyaz’s lawyer also highlighted that while Riyaz had been brought before the judge who had ruled to keep him in police custody for the remainder of the trial over completely different charges, said charges didn’t require him to be kept under police custody when the case had previously been filed.
Stressing that Riyaz’s court trials are proceedings without any trace of justice or in an orderly fashion, his lawyer said that the state had failed to mention anything about his case following his appeal.
High Court had in mid-April overturned a lower court ruling, finding the MP guilty for the obstruction charges put forth against him, consecutively slapping him with a prison sentence of four months and 24 days in prison. Following this, the opposition coalition had condemned the conviction, saying that court trials had been marred by negligence and ineptitude.
Riyaz, who is also the Deputy Leader of Jumhooree Party (JP), was accused of obstructing the conduct of a law enforcement officer by refusing to provide access to his mobile phone. Additional charges against the MP include conspiring to overthrow the government since 2017 with fellow parliamentarians as well as being involved in the issuance of the Supreme Court ruling on the 01st of February.
Following these allegations, Riyaz had denied them, claiming them to be baseless and politically motivated.
If found guilty of the terror charges against him, Riyaz faces a prison sentence of up to 17 – 20 years in incarceration.
In mid-July, Riyaz’s family had also accused President Abdulla Yameen of lying about his conviction. The family assured that he had immediately given his phone to the police after he was approached with a court order and that although he had initially refused to give his PIN code since it was not stated in the court order, he had later on given the code after request from the court.
