Qasim arrest appeal scheduled for 2pm

High Court has scheduled the appeal of parliamentarian Qasim Ibrahim’s arrest for 2pm Wednesday.

Qasim was arrested last Thursday and his remand will expire on this week.

The order notes that that the Maamigillil constituency MP had attempted to bribe lawmakers in order to win the no-confidence vote against parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed, held on March 27, and is attempting to influence the no-confidence motion against the deputy speaker, which is scheduled for April 11. It also stated that Qasim has been attempting to influence the security forces as well.

Furthermore, noting that Qasim’s actions show that he is working to unlawfully topple an elected government, the Criminal Court deemed Qasim a threat to national security.

Lawyer Hisaan Hussain said that there were no legal grounds for the charges against Qasim, which they had raised in the hearings. Hisaan added that there was no reason for him to hide evidence as claimed by Police and that Police had no solid evidence on their client as well.

Hisaan noted that no other evidence was presented by the Police, other than the intelligence report. 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 had claimed that Qasim’s arrest and detention were in violation of the privileges granted to Parliamentarians. Clause 13 (a) stipulates that unless a parliamentarian is caught red handed, the parliamentarian can only be arrested if a superior court or Supreme Court issues a warrant in connection to an ongoing criminal investigation. The clause also states that this can only proceed ahead with the go ahead from Prosecutor General.