Head of the presidential inquiry commission on Disappearances and Deaths, Husnu Al Suood has urged the government to pave way to conduct a fair trial into murdered blogger and social media activist Yameen’s Rasheed’s case.

Urging the government to make alternative arrangements to provide justice to the people in the case, Suood expressed his concern via a Twitter post.

He added that if the Maldives Judiciary is unable to facilitate a “fair and speedy trial”, alternative arrangements must be made.

Suood’s tweet comes at a time reports of state witnesses in Yameen’s case being attacked, surfaced at Thursday’s hearing.

Testimonies from two witnesses were to be taken at Thursday’s hearing, however, one of them failed to turn up, having refused to give a statement in court.

State revealed that some of their witnesses had been threatened and even physically attacked for agreeing to give testimonies. Two individuals had even been removed as state witnesses as some witnesses have refused to give testimonies in secret.

Yameen was attacked as he had entered his home after work at around 02:30 a.m on the 23rd of April, by two men while a third waited outside as a lookout. Yameen had over 30 stab wounds on his chest, neck and throat. CCTV footage shows everything that happened in Maafannu Spatula that night.

Murder charges have been raised against Ismail Haisham Rasheed, Hussain Ziyad, Ismail Rasheed, Hassan Shifaz, Mohamed Dhifran, and Ahmed Zihan Ismail.