Criminal Court has dismissed the charges pressed against Ahmed Ismail over the forced disappearance of journalist Ahmed Rilwan and the murder of blogger Yameen Rasheed due to insufficient evidence on Thursday, October 12.
Terrorism charges against Ahmed Ismail were dismissed on Thursday. The state had pressed charges against two others in the cases of Rilwan and Yameen.
He was charged with conspiring with others to punish those who expressed anti-Islamic views on social media in 2014, believing they should take it upon themselves to punish such individuals.
He was additionally charged with conspiring and participating with others to abduct and murder Yameen and Rilwan. Along with others, Ahmed was accused of obtaining the passwords of social media accounts belonging to people they believed should be punished by force, and scrutinizing their accounts to determine whether they warranted punishment.
However, the Criminal Court ruled that the state had not provided sufficient evidence to prove him guilty of this charge and ruled that he was not guilty.
According to the judgment, evidence was presented that Ahmed was involved in the torture of people who expressed anti-Islamic views on social media. However, the court stated that there was no evidence to suggest a conspiracy to cause physical assault on a person.
The court has also released two others who were arrested for their alleged role in the brutal murder of Rilwan and Yameen. They are Ismail Abdul Raheem and Ahmed Muaz.
The prosecution had said that Ahmed Ismail was not only planning and organizing Rilwan's murder but also had stalked Yameen to facilitate his murder.
Ahmed Ismail was arrested last year in connection with the case. He was released before the trial was over after being administered to wear a monitoring ankle bracelet.
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