Criminal Court: Cannot livestream hearings due to lack of an IT officer

Criminal Court has stated that they are unable to livestream court hearings due to the lack of an IT officer.

The Court’s media officer Aman Mohamed Najeeb told Sun tonight that it is not the lack of resources that he resulted in the court being unable to livestream its hearings.

Noting that the court possessed the physical resources to livestream its hearings – Aman said that they are unable to livestream the hearings at the moment as the court lacks an employee that is able to utilize these resources.

“We do have the physical resources. But as we do not have the human resources – we cannot livestream the hearings at the moment,” he had said.

Aman further detailed that the court is working on hiring an IT officer for this work. In this regard, he added that the deadline for application for the post had been extended till end of January,

Former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayyoom had requested to livestream the hearings in the money laundering case against him in connection to the sale of V. Aarah.

Criminal Court’s Chief Judge Ahmed Shakeel, who presides over the case, had previously stated that the Court currently does not have the resources to livestream the hearings at present.

Judge Shakeel said that he hearings in the case will be livestreamed as soon as they acquire the resources for it. He also noted there to be difficulties in livestreaming the hearings due to administrative issues.

Hearings in the first money laundering trial against Yameen had been aired by television channels. The hearings were aired with assistance from Public Service Media (PSM) at the request of the Criminal Court. It was the first hearing livestreamed on television in the Maldives.