Hulhumal

The Prosecutor General’s (PG) Office has refuted Hulhumalé Court’s statement that the Court has no jurisdiction over the case pertaining to former President Mohamed Nasheed, and requested the Court to review its decision to dismiss the case.

PG Office said through a press release today, that according to article 67(a) of the law on courts, a judicial division exists for every administrative division mentioned in Schedule 2 of the Constitution.

Hence, as the division of Malé includes Vilingili and Hulhumalé, the Hulhumalé Magistrate Court comes under the Malé judicial division.

PG Office said in its statement that the arrest of an innocent person is not included in the items on Schedule 2 which describes cases over which Magistrate Courts have no jurisdiction over.

PG Office thus referred to article 66 and 69 of the law on courts and requested the Hulhumalé Magistrate Court to review its decision to dismiss the case.

The case filed by PG Office to Hulhumalé Court relates to the arrest of the Chief Judge of Criminal Court by former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration.

PG Officer cited conflict of interest as the reason for filing the case to Hulhumalé Court instead of Criminal Court.

Hulhumalé Court, however, returned the case to PG Office citing it has no jurisdiction over this case.

Chief Judge of Criminal Court Abdullah Mohamed of Bahaaruge, R. Hulhudhuffaaru, was arrested by MNDF on 16 January 2012, and subsequently detained at the MNDF training facility Girifushi.

For this reason, PG Office had filed a case requesting for the prosecution of former President and Commander-in-Chief Mohamed Nasheed, former Defence Minister Thalhath Ibrahim Kaleyfaan, former Chief of Defence Force Moosa Ali Jaleel, former Brigadier General Ibrahim Mohamed Didi and Colonel Mohamed Ziyad.