The parliament on Sunday approved the appointment of Criminal Court Judge Ali Rasheed Hussain and Dr Mohamed Ibrahim to the Supreme Court (SC) bench.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih forwarded the two names to the parliament on August 19 after the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) green-lighted their nomination.
The vote on the parliament floor was conducted after Judiciary Committee approved Rasheed and Ibrahim on August 24. While Ali Rasheed received 55 votes in favour and one against, Dr Mohamed received 63 votes in his favour.
Prior to temporarily taking over the Criminal Court's responsibilities in late 2019 following JSC's decision to suspend the then-Chief Judge Ahmed Hailam, Ali Rasheed had formerly filled the position of Civil Court's Chief Judge, in addition to sitting on the Drug Court's bench.
Notably, Ali Rasheed was the presiding judge on former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's money laundering trial at the Criminal Court. The five-member bench unanimously sentenced the ex-president to five years of imprisonment.
He was also the first-ever judge to sentence a suspect to capital punishment following the enactment of the 2008 Constitution. The verdict, delivered in 2010, was later upheld by the Supreme Court in 2016.
Dr Mohamed is a shareholder of well-known law firm Premier Chambers, with 16 years of expertise in the legal sector.
JSC opened for applications to apply for the Supreme Court bench earlier in August 2019, when two seats on the seven-member bench were vacated.
The Supreme Court bench currently consists of Chief Justice Ahmed Muthasim Adnan and justices Dr Azmiralda Zahir, Dr Aisha Shujoon Mohamed, Husnu Al Suood and Mahaz Ali Zahir.
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