High Court overturns Ex-Judicial Administrator's prison sentence

The High Court, on Sunday, overturned the prison sentence of former Judicial Administrator Hassan Saeed during its first virtual hearing.

In 2018, the Criminal Court sentenced Saeed to four months and 24 days of imprisonment after being convicted of deliberately hiding from the police and obstructing law enforcement.

Saeed was arrested in the wake of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on February 1, 2018, which ordered the release of nine high profile political prisoners. The Criminal Court ruled to release the former Judicial Administrator on November 5, 2018, after he finished serving the sentence.

The High Court held the hearing, broadcasted live via YouTube, after Saeed appealed the Criminal Court's verdict. Despite the online proceedings, the presiding judges and court staff virtually joined the hearing from separate areas of the court's premises.

Chaired by Judge Hussain Mazeed, the judges bench included Judge Mohamed Faisal and Judge Shujau Usman.

The High Court stated that there was no indication of Saeed being formally summoned for questioning as per standard investigative procedures, despite the police releasing an announcement confirming an investigation against the ex-judicial administrator. In the absence of an official summons, the court asserted that it was not possible to verify whether Saeed's investigation and verdict complied with regulations.

Subsequently, the High Court stated that it could not be proven that the Prosecutor General's charges, based on the police investigation, were levied according to proper procedures.

According to the court, the charges could only be proven with records of an official police summons in conjunction with evidence that Saeed declined to present himself despite being aware of the summons and having the opportunity to do so. Therefore, the judges asserted that the evidence presented was insufficient.

The High Court also noted that while testimonies against Saeed were collected confidentially, it was not known how the Criminal Court ascertained the reliability of the witnesses. The confidential collection of testimony was noted to be in contradiction of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Additionally, the High Court stated that the Criminal Court had not provided adequate reasons for refusing to accept testimony in Saeed's defence from former Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and former Supreme Court Judge Ali Hameed.

On the aforementioned grounds, the three High Court Judges unanimously decided to nullify the lower court's verdict against Saeed.

Following the Supreme Court ruling of February 1, the state also charged Saeed, along with former Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and former Supreme Court Judge Ali Hameed, with accepting bribes, under accusations that Jumhooree Party founder Qasim Ibrahim's Villa Group had paid for expensive properties in Malaysia that were acquired by people linked to the three. The Criminal Court had annulled their charges, stating that it could not proceed with the case based on the burden of proof.