Court rejects appeal of JP leader Qasim

Criminal Court has rejected the appeal submitted by Jumhooree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim's legal team, regarding his arrest and subsequent detention.

Qasim’s legal team filed the appeal on Sunday morning.

A statement issued by JP on Sunday noted that a member of parliament ‘can only be arrested by a warrant issued by a superior or a higher court at the request of the Prosecutor General,' highlighting that Qasim’s arrest contravened with the law, as it was carried through a warrant issued by the Criminal Court the request of the Maldives Police Service.

“This is a clear breach of the law. After Honorable Qasim’s unlawful arrest the Criminal Court has further passed a sentence to remand him for six days”, said JP, adding that he ‘has been arrested against the law and blatantly deprived of due process’.

The party also noted that the parliament speaker had refused to accept a letter sent by its parliamentary group informing him of Qasim’s arrest.

It also expressed concern over Qasim’s arrest ‘ahead of a crucial vote of no-confidence against the deputy speaker, scheduled for April 11, and called on the government to ‘immediately launch an investigation’ into the circumstances of his arrest and detention.

While the JP leader was arrested under a court order, he is accused of attempting to bribe lawmakers in order to win the no-confidence motion against parliament speaker which was scheduled for March 27, and attempting to influence the no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker scheduled for April 11, and attempting to hide the evidence to hinder the investigation being carried out by the Maldives Police Service (MPS).

Qasim is further accused of attempting to influence the security forces, and working to unlawfully topple an elected government, and has been deemed a threat to public safety.

Lawyer Hisaan Hussain, from Qasim’s legal team, said that Qasim’s arrest ‘is unlawful’, which they had noted during the remand hearing.

Hisaan had also noted that no other evidence was presented by the Police, other than an intelligence report, adding that 'there is no correlation between the allegations and the clauses of law which the allegations correspond to'.

Adding that Police had said Qasim was being held solely to gather evidence, Hisaan said Police was given a period of six-days to bring up evidence. The Judge had also ordered Qasim to be transferred to another area for the duration of his stay.

The opposition maintains that Qasim was arrested in order to sway the no-confidence vote against the parliament speaker, as well as to halt their work to resubmit the no-confidence motion against speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed.