Criminal Court today began proceedings in the qazf case against Adhadhu News CEO Hussain Fiyaz Moosa and editor Hassan Mohamed.

The first preliminary hearing in the case was held at 1 pm. A second hearing has been scheduled for after the Eid holidays.

Cases of this nature are heard behind closed doors, and the court has issued a gag order prohibiting the release of information related to the trial. As a result, lawyers involved in the case declined to comment on today's hearing.

The Prosecutor General’s Office filed charges against Fiyaz and Hassan on Sunday following a fast-tracked investigation during which both journalists exercised their right to remain silent.

The prosecution also sought a court order directing the pair not to speak, directly or indirectly, about a documentary released by Adhadhu News. The court granted the request.

The trial comes a day after two Adhadhu journalists were jailed for contempt of court over questions asked at a press conference held at the President’s Office and for reporting on the court order.

When summoned by police in connection with the qazf investigation, Fiyaz and Hassan declined to answer questions, stating that journalists have a constitutional right to protect their sources.

During the investigation phase, the Criminal Court also ordered Adhadhu to provide police with passcodes to seized laptops, hard drives, pen drives, cloud storage accounts and social media accounts to allow access to data stored on the devices. Fiyaz, however, refused to comply with the order.