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Location of planned "suicide attack" not known: state

Nafaahath Ibrahim
18 April 2018, MVT 15:24
Ishaaq and Afeef being taken into court on April 17.
Nafaahath Ibrahim
18 April 2018, MVT 15:24

The state on Tuesday was unable to explain to the Criminal Court where two suspects, who were arrested over allegedly plotting a suicide killing, were planning to carry out their attack.

Raa Atoll Maduvvari's Ishaaq Ali and Fuvahmulah's Hussain Afeef were arrested in September 2017 for allegedly attempting to carry out a suicide attack in August that year. According to the state, Ishaaq was the one who planned the attack and Afeef was going to carry it out.

Ishaaq’s trial was carried on Tuesday; Afeef’s part of the hearing was not carried out as his lawyer was not present.

The state had presented several evidences as proof against them including an intelligence report, a mobile forensic report, financial transactions and some audio recordings.

Ishaaq’s lawyer Mohamed Misbaah said that the prosecution was not able to explain the reason why Ishaaq wanted to carry out a suicide attack.

The prosecution lawyer responded that all the evidence provided prove that a suicide attack was planned, and he claimed that it was planned to create fear among people and tarnish the good name of the Maldives.

According to the prosecution, they have obtained text messages that Ishaaq had sent with content such as “get ready for suicide attack” and to “get ready for mission”.

When Judge Adam Arif asked if there was a chance that they were trying to carry out the attack without harming anyone, the prosecution said that it was hard to believe anyone with such level of extremism would not harm people.

Though the audio obtained appeared to prove that such an attack was planned, the police's investigation was not able to uncover the planned location of the attack according to the state lawyer. The prosecution pointed out that knowledge of the location was irrelevant to their arrest.

There were several audios, videos and documents found in Ishaaq’s laptop about the extremist terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS).

Although the prosecution claimed that the evidences were found after searching Ishaaq’s residences, his lawyer Misbaah said that it was not explained whether the equipments needed for the attack were obtained.

The state requested not to publicize the audio call recordings in order to protect the identity of another person and to prevent tampering of evidences.

The judge ended the hearing after announcing that another hearing will be held on May 8.

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