Moosa Ali to be sentenced on Friday

Criminal Court has said that the former Chief of Defence Force and the current Defence Minister, Moosa Ali Jaleed would be sentence this Friday in the terrorism charge against him for his involvement in the unlawful arrest of the former Chief Judge of the Criminal Court, Abdulla Mohamed.

After the closing statements from the prosecution and the defence tonight in today’s hearing, Judge Abdulla from the judge’s bench said that the hearing in the case has ended and the sentencing would be on Friday.

In the closing statement by the prosecution, prosecutor Aishath Fazna Ahmed said that in Moosa Ali Jaleel’s testimony to the investigation, he said that he urged to arrest Judge Abdulla Mohamed outside of the court on the street rather than inside the courthouse.

The prosecutor said that witness testimonies show that he spoke about the Military arresting civilians at an MNDF meeting.

Prosecutor Fazna said that no evidence other than the word of mouth has been presented to prove that he was the Chief of Defence Force in title alone.

The prosecutor said that no sane person would believe that a person might be posted at such a level as a title alone. And requested that the defendant be found guilty of the charge, based on the evidence.

In the closing statement by the defence lawyer Adam Asif said that Jaleel’s testimony statement during the investigation was prepared by misinterpreting what his said at the time. And that he denies all of the accounts in that statement. And according to the constitution, no testimony other than the one presented in court can be accepted during the trial.

Asif also said that the witness testimonies prove that Abdualla Mohamed was arrested by assigning the Male’ Area Commander Ibrahim Mohamed Didi as the commander after changing the military structure under the order of the Defence Minister back then, Tholhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaanu.