Three men arrested in connection with murders of Rilwan and Yamin remanded till end of trial

Criminal Court ordered on Monday that the three men arrested in connection the murders of journalist Ahmed Rilwan and blogger Yamin Rasheed to be held under custody until their trials are over.

They were arrested on Sunday.

Suspects are usually remanded till end of trial if there is a significant amount of evidence against them. However no details regarding the rulings made yesterday has been made available.

The three men arrested:

Ahmed Ismail, 39, Male’

Ismail Abdu-Raheem, 30, Male’

Ahmed Muaz, 40

The three men were arrested following new leads from the investigation of the presidential Commission on Death and Disappearances. No detail has been released.

In a previous report released by the commission Ismail Abdu-Raheem had stalked Rilwan a short period prior to his disappearance. He has been arrested for attempting to go to Syria to fight in the conflict there.

Immigration in Turkey had deported him when they caught him attempting to enter the country, and charges were pressed against him as well, which were later dropped as the state failed to obtain certain documents from Turkey.

Ahmed Ismail is accused of attempting to send people to fight in the ongoing conflict in Syria. He has a record of being involved with drugs.

Muaz was arrested in 2014 in connection for stealing the CCTV on Minivan news, the news organization Rilwan worked at. He was also accused of leaving a machete on the door of the office. He was later released without charge.

Rilwan was kidnapped in August 2014. He was last seen entering the ferry terminal to go to Hulhumale’. He was put in a car and transported elsewhere at gun point from the front of his apartment.

Six people were brought to court over the charge of attacking a man with a sharp object and killing him, over the death of Yameen. They are Ismail Haisham Rasheed, Ahmed Zihaan, Hassan Shifaz, and Ismail Rasheed from Male', Mohamed Dhifran from Gaafu Dhaalu Gadhoo, and Hussain Ziyad from Meemu Kolhufushi.

He was attacked in April 2017.

Only Haisham and Zihan were found guilty. The others charged were not convicted.