Court acquits Raajje TV COO of battery charge

The Criminal Court on Sunday acquitted opposition-aligned television channel Raajje TV’s Chief Operations Officer (COO) Hussain Fiyaz of his battery charge for allegedly striking a law enforcement officer.

Fiyaz was caught trespassing on Maafannu Stadium, which the police had barricaded off in November 2015 to defuse an explosive device discovered near the presidential palace of Muliaage. Fiyaz was accused of battery under Section 120 of the Penal Code, for allegedly striking a law enforcement officer on the torso while he was being arrested on the scene.

Acting Chief Judge of the Criminal Court, Adam Arif, who presided over the case stated in the verdict that, based on the prosecution’s evidence against Fiyaz and the defence’ witness testimonies, the evidence was not enough to prove him guilty of his charge.

The judge noted that while three policemen testified that Fiyaz had struck an officer during his arrest, the defence had provided three witnesses that testified that Fiyaz had not struck or disobeyed any law enforcement officers that night. The defence witnesses further claimed that after ordering Fiyaz to leave the restricted area, Police had abruptly decided to take Fiyaz under arrest.

The prosecution had protested against the legitimacy ofthe defence witnesses as all three are journalists that work with Fiyaz at Raajje TV. However, Judge Arif noted that the three journalists had been on the scene during Fiyaz’s arrest.

Judge Arif further highlighted that Raajje TV had been airing the events live at the time and had reported that a police officer had brutally arrested a journalist. Hence, the judge stated that there was little to deem the witnesses’ testimonies as fabricated. Also pointing out that none of the witnesses were accused or charged with Fiyaz over the incident, Judge Arif stated that the prosecution was not able to provide enough grounds to suspect the testimonies as false.

The judge added that Fiyaz’s defence witnesses had gone to the scene as journalists and that freedom of media is a basic right which the state is mandated to empower.

Had Fiyaz been found guilty of the battery charge, he would have been sentenced to a month and nine days in jail.