"Adhadhu" news CEO Hussain Fiyaz Moosa and the outlet's editor, Hassan Mohamed, denied the slander (Qazf) charges raised against them today.

During the hearing held today at the Criminal Court in the trial against Fiyaz and Hassan, the state read out the charges. The prosecution also responded to questions raised by the defense regarding the charges.

Both Fiyaz and Hassan denied the charges in today's courtroom session. Consequently, the state presented evidence against the two journalists. Fiyaz and Hassan were then granted the opportunity to present evidence in their defense.

Cases of this nature are conducted in private in court. Furthermore, a gag order had previously been issued to withhold publication of information related to this trial. Therefore, the lawyers have not disclosed any details of the hearing either.

The Prosecutor General's Office filed charges against the two journalists and forwarded the case to court within approximately two weeks of the investigation's commencement. Since both individuals exercised their right to remain silent during the investigation, the probe was concluded very swiftly.

When summoned to the police over the slander allegations, Fiyaz and Hassan remained silent, stating that a journalist's right to protect their sources is a right guaranteed by the Constitution.

In addition, while a court order was in place prohibiting any discussion regarding a video documentary released by "Adhadhu" news, two journalists from the outlet were previously sentenced to prison by the court for contempt of court, after they posed questions during a press conference at the President's Office and due to the manner in which the news report regarding the court order was written.

While the two journalists have now been released, the prison sentence case has currently been appealed in the High Court.

During the investigation of the case, the Criminal Court had also previously issued an order directing "Adhadhu" news to provide the passcodes for laptops, hard drives, pen drives, cloud storage, and social media accounts seized by the police, and to grant access to the data contained within those devices. However, Adhadhu's CEO Fiyaz refused to comply with the order.