Passport of ex-judge accused in Rilwan’s disappearance, withheld

Passport of former High Court Judge, Hassan Ali, has been withheld over an alleged attempt to cover up the abduction and murder of journalist Ahmed Rilwan.

While the police recently handed over the case to the presidential inquiry commission on deaths and enforced disappearances, it has confirmed that Hassan’s passport has been withheld in relation to the case.

RaajjeMV understands that Hassan’s passport was seized after he returned from abroad, having travelled out of the country after the borders were reopened on July 15.

The former judge is accused of working with two officers from the police intelligence unit, to falsify travel documents in Rilwan’s name.

They are accused of working to fabricate evidence to make it appear that the missing journalist had died after leaving the country to participate in a conflict overseas.

The former High Court judge was the Immigration Controller, at the time of Rilwan’s disappearance.

While the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) suspended him in September 2019 after forwarding the case to police, Hassan resigned this July.

The parliament was also preparing to take an impeachment vote against Hassan, when he resigned.

While Rilwan was last seen in August 2014, police confirmed his abduction two years later in 2016. Incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih formed the commission on murders and enforced disappearances in November 2018, to investigate such cases.

Back in September 2019, it was finally revealed that Rilwan was killed by an extremist group.

The commission, in December 2018, said that investigations showed links between Rilwan’s murder and two other high profile murders in the country; the 2012 murder of parliamentarian Dr. Afrasheem Ali, and the 2017 stabbing of Rilwan’s best friend and democracy activist Yameen Rasheed.