Police: Mohamed Ismail India Out campaign’s main financer

Maldives Police Services stated that former Parliamentarian for Horafushi Constituency Mohamed Ismail was the main financier of the opposition’s ‘India Out’ campaign.

The Police accused him of this during the hearing held on Saturday to determine the remand period for Mohamed Ismail, after his second arrest.

Along with the charge’s intelligence reports, photo reports and criminal records were presented as evidence.

However, despite the Police accusing Mohamed Ismail to be the main financer of the campaign, the court documents reveal that they were unable to produce subracial evidence to back this claim.

Further charges were pressed by Police against him of acting to disrupt peace in general, acting against national security, obstructing justice and obstructing other functioning of the government, linking an individual’s race and nation to political thinking and destroying property.

However, the court order releasing him stated that substantial evidence was not submitted for any of these charges.

The Supreme Court had noted that intelligence reports alone were not enough to extant the remand period. Moreover, the photo reports did not give enough support to the claims in the intelligence reports, said the release documents.

The release order was by Criminal Court Judge Ismail Shafeeu.

After being initially arrested on May 18, the Criminal Court released him the following day, during the hearing to determine his remand period. He was re-arrested on May 21 and released later on the same day.