Criminal Court on Monday decreed that Rajjee TV’s journalist Adam Zareer was guilty of charges of obstruction of Police duties and fined him by MVR 3,000.
Zareer was arrested on March 25, 2015, while covering an opposition rally, and is accused of forcefully entering an area cordoned off by the Police and in the process disrupt Police from carrying out their duties.
The charges were filed under clauses 75 and 72 of the Police Act. In Monday’s hearing Judge Adam Arif said there were no contradicting statements between the charges and the prosecution witness statements. He also said the video evidence submitted by the prosecution corroborates the witness statements.
Both Police officers who had witnessed on behalf of the state had testified they had not seen the identification provided by Broadcasting Commission on Zareer that night. Additionally, one said Zareer did not have a camera, while the other said he did not remember seeing a camera.
However, the video evidence clearly shows that Zareer had on himself the pass given by Broadcasting Commission and the camera used to record the protest. The video shows Zareer’s arrest, but no action that would have impeded Police duties.
The Judge also noted that Zareer had his pass on himself. He said that journalists should not be barred from fulfilling their mandate, even in a protest. Judge Arif said even the Police did not have the power to bar journalists from their work. As such, he noted that there were other journalists at the protest, adding that it was unclear whether he was arrested because he was a journalist.
State prosecutors argued that obstruction of Police duties was an offense of the highest nature and should be punished by a jail term of four months and 24 days. However, the state prosecutors had said the Judge can decide the punishment.
Zareer’s lawyer, Abdullah Haseen, had called to give the smallest punishment possible under the law, noting that Zareer was not a threat to society. As such, he said that this was Zareer’s first offense and is a model citizen.
Judge Arif, in his sentence stated that while the basic penalty was a jail term of four months and 24 days, he was fined under the powers granted to Judge. He was fined by MVR 3,000.
Haseen had said the verdict will be appealed. Zareer had thanked the state for sentencing him, whilst he was clearly fulfilling his mandate as a journalist.
RTV’s Mohamed Wisam and Leevan Ali Nasir last month were fined by MVR 28,800 each. Another sentencing on Wisam is scheduled for March 9th, while summary charges on COO Hussain Fiyaz Moosa will be announced soon.
