The High Court on Thursday upheld the Criminal Court’s decision not to produce incumbent President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and Vice President Faisal Naseem as defence witnesses in the charges against Progressive Party of Maldives' (PPM) former parliamentary group leader Ahmed Nihan.
Nihan is facing four counts of bribery and money laundering for accepting money and a Rolex watch as bribes from former Vice President Ahmed Abdheeb when he was a member of parliament.
Nihan's lawyer submitted the names of the President, Vice President and three other members of the parliament's Public Finance Committee as witnesses in the Criminal Court to clarify the treatment of audit reports in the Finance Committee.
The President, Vice President and Nihan were also on the parliamentary committee during the time. However, the Criminal Court decided in September not to admit the witnesses as they were not relevant to the case.
The High Court today ruled that there was nothing wrong with the Criminal Court's decision not to produce them as witnesses.
Nihan also challenged the clause which stated that charges were filed without completing the procedures required by law; the upper court ruled that the Criminal Court's decision was correct in this regard as well.
Under the recent amendment to the Criminal Procedure Act, the High Court heard the case with only Judge Mohamed Faisal on the panel.
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