Wisam's sentencing hearing postponed to March 28
State raised obstruction charges against him on April 2016, over an arrest made on March 25, 2015
Criminal Court found Wisam guilty of a separate obstruction charge in January, and fined him MVR 28,800
Criminal Court has postponed RaajjeTV senior video journalist, Mohamed Wisam’s sentencing hearing for March 28, after cancelling Thursday’s hearing.
Wisam’s sentencing hearing is now scheduled for 11:30 am on March 28.
While the hearing was initially moved to 11 am on Thursday, the Court claims that the hearing was delayed as ‘one of the defense witnesses had failed to sign their statements on time.’
State raised obstruction charges against him on April 5, 2016, over an arrest made on March 25, 2015, while covering an opposition rally.
Denying the charges, Wisam presented four witnesses to Court, in order to prove his innocence. Prosecutors presented two witnesses, a chart of the area cordoned off by police, and a video footage to prove the charge against him.
In the last hearing of the trial, held on January 31, the Court analyzed the video footage submitted against Wisam by the state, and summary charges were announced.
According to summary charges, Adam Zareer, one of Wisam’s witnesses, is a co-respondent of the charges and had given his statement 'to protect Wisam', decreeing that Zareer’s statement was 'inadmissible' in Court.
Wisam’s defense lawyer, Abdullah Haseen said that while he had been charged with entering an area closed off by police, the submitted video footage “does not corroborate the charges.”
RaajjeTV's senior videographer, Zareer was arrested with Wisam, and charged with obstruction as well. While Zareer's sentencing hearing was held on February 27, the Court found him guilty of obstruction, and sentenced him to pay a fine of MVR 3,000.
Criminal Court found Wisam guilty of a separate obstruction charge, on January 24, along with Leevaan Ali Nasir, over an arrest made while covering a bomb scare in the capital Male' City in November 2015. They were both fined MVR 28,800 each. They were found guilty of the charges on December 19, 2016. Prosecutors had requested the Court to sentence both journalists to four months and 24 days in jail, the maximum punishment.
They have since filed an appeal at the High Court.
In addition, RaajjeTV’s COO, Hussain Fiyaz Moosa, who was arrested with Wisam and Leevaan, is charged with “touching an officer without consent”. At the last heaing of the case, held on February 2, the presiding judge, Adam Arif had announced that a verdict in the case will be issued before the end of February.
The station has dismissed the charges against its staff as “baseless in its entirety,” describing the arrests and subsequent charges as “an attack on press freedom and an attempt to impede, harass and psychologically torture RaajjeTV journalists, with the objective of halting its independent broadcasts.”
