JSC to decide on whether to impeach Didi after 30-day deadline to respond expires

While Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi is still under suspension, the Judicial Service Commissioner (JSC) said that it will make a decision on whether to dismiss him after the 30-day deadline given to send in a response.

JSC decided to suspend him in June, following an investigation into allegations of obstructing judicial power and of acting unconstitutionally.

While a sub-committee was formed to investigate this, it sought to impeach the justice.

The 30-day period was given from July 9 after the sub-committee submitted its report, to submit “in writing any information that needs to be given to the commission,” as per Article 30 (Judge’s Report on the Report of the Investigation Committee) of the Judicial Service Act. According to 30 (a) 3, the recipient of the complaint can also “express the desire to be present at the commission with or without a lawyer to give direct presentation in response to the act.”

Highlighting this, JSC Director Hassan Zaheen said that a decision on whether to impeach Didi will be made after this deadline expires next month.

Didi is alleged to have taken a USD one million bribe in 2015 to sentence former President Mohamed Nasheed to 13 years in jail. He has also been accused of using his position as a top court judge to gain undue influence over others.

While JSC decided to suspend him in June, the Supreme Court has issued a stay order in the case.

Despite this, JSC decided to proceed with investigation into the five misconduct allegations against Didi. He asked for the investigative meeting to be held in public.

According to a letter read out at this meeting held on June 20, police’s top suspect -Suspect One- in the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) graft case had testified to having given bribes to various judges, including Didi, to alter the rulings in cases involving politicians.

A 'Witness One' is to have testified to having delivered the money to Didi, and had kept details of these transactions on his phone. Two of his phones have since been handed over to the police, who is to have extracted the information through a forensic analysis.

In addition, it noted that Suspect One had approached Didi, after interactions with a known criminal, seeking to release suspects arrested in the abduction of journalist Ahmed Rilwan.

The police noted that Didi had released Mohamed Suaid after this exchange, and facilitated the release of Abdulla Haisham.

In return for these, Didi is to have sought employment for family members including post of deputy ambassador to Malaysia, from Suspect One.

Police further added that evidence and testimonies in the investigation shows that Didi and Suspect One are close acquaintances.