High Court on Tuesday ordered a lower court to open a rejected case against a man accused of sexually abusing a minor.
The case filed at the magistrate court on an island in Lhaviyani Atoll, charges a man with sexually abusing a 12-year-old child on the road. The lower court dropped the case last year, stating that the evidence submitted by the prosecution did not meet the balance of probability standard specified in the Criminal Procedure Code.
Following the state's appeal of the magistrate court's decision, the High Court's verdict on Tuesday stated it was the prosecution's responsibility to submit sufficient evidence to make a substantial case, and that acquitting the defendant during the preliminary stage of the trial was not appropriate.
The High Court asserted that the state had submitted substantial evidence to warrant a trial. Further noting that the appellate court had previously issued a ruling that suspects must be tried if substantial evidence was submitted against them, the High Court stated that the magistrate court's decision to drop the case was in violation of that ruling.
Presiding Judge Hussain Mazeed, and judges Abdulla Hameed and Shuaib Hussain Zakariyya unanimously agreed to annul the magistrate court's verdict, with the order to open the trial again.
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