Maldives police seize ‘pen drive, hard disk’ from lawyer Siraj’s apartment

Maldives Police raided detained lawyer Moosa Siraj’s apartment on Friday morning.

The jailed former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb’s defence lawyer was arrested on Thursday night, under a court order.

Police escorted Siraj to his apartment on Friday morning, and proceeded to search the place where his office is located.

As he was being escorted back after the raid, Siraj gestured a number two with his hand and called to vote for Joint Opposition’s candidate in Sunday’s poll. He further noted that ‘this is ending’.

According to his lawyer Ibrahim Shiyam, police seized ‘some documents, a pen drive and a hard disk’ in the raid. He added that they were seized for the investigation against Siraj, where he has been accused of issuing statements, citing Adeeb, with baseless allegations against incumbent President Abdulla Yameen.

Siraj published a number of statements from his most high-profile client last week, with various allegations against incumbent President Abdulla Yameen including sorcery.

While Siraj was arrested over these statements, his arrest order accuses him of spreading ‘fake news’ regarding state institutions and using ‘vulgar’ language in said statements.

Following the release of the statements, authorities blocked Adeeb and some other political detainees from meeting with lawyers.