President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has on Tuesday ratified the second amendment bill to the Criminal Procedure Act.

The People’s Majlis approved the amendment bill on June 29, with votes from 58 parliamentarians.

The government endorsed amendment bill to the Criminal Procedure Act was submitted to the parliament by Mathiveri constituency MP, Hassan Zareer. It was reviewed by the judiciary committee, who approved the bill on June 9.

This bill specifies 11 serious criminal offences, which include rape, murder, pedophilia, terrorism, money laundering, human trafficking, drug trafficking, tax evasion, bribery, corruption and financial crimes worth over MVR 100,000. It also allows law enforcement agencies the authority to conduct searches related to an investigation of a criminal offence without a prior court warrant.

The amendment bill also make it compulsory for remand orders to be revised every 30 days in cases where the judge decides to remand a suspect until sentencing It states any individual who is brought under police custody for questioning must be allowed a phone call to a lawyer or relative in order to inform them of the situation.

Furthermore, it allows authorities to conduct hearings via videoconferencing, if such a situation arises. Recordings of these hearings are to be stored for 25 years.

Following ratification, the Act has been published on the government gazette.