Court releases 2 suspects held in Rilwan's abduction

Criminal Court has released two suspects held in the abduction of Maldives Independent (formally known as Minivan News) reporter Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla.

Police had been holding Ahmed Aalif Rauf (H. Hilton, Male’) – who is the owner of the red car that Rilwan was allegedly carried away in, and Mohamed Nooruddin (Karankaage, G. Dh. Vaadhoo) – who allegedly drove the car around in Hulhumale’.

Police have confirmed to “Sun” that the court has released both the suspects.

Aalif and Nooruddin were arrested by police on April 5, with extensions to their remand granted on multiple occasions.

They were released by court on Wednesday.

Rilwan went missing in the early hours of August 8, 2014.

Speaking during the press conference held on the case on April 2, Superintendent of Police, Abdulla Shatheeh said that witnesses had reported hearing a man’s scream three times from where the car was, and seeing a hand reaching out from the door on the left-side of the car – which had been ajar - the night Rilwan disappeared.

Shatheeh said that Rilwan’s abduction had been pre-planned, with people spotted shadowing his every move prior to the abduction.

He named Mohamed Suaidh (Athiree Aage, S. Hulhudhoo) as the individual who led the effort to shadow Rilwan the night he was abducted.

Shatheeh said that Aalif and Suad were close friends – and affiliated with the gang – Kuda Henveiru.

He said that investigation to pinpoint the exact location where Rilwan’s phone’s signal was lost had uncovered that it had not been voluntarily switched off.

Shatheeh said that police still had not found out what happened to Rilwan, and that it was still an on-going investigation.