Judicial Service Commission (JSC), on Tuesday, announced that it had commenced investigating three additional cases concerning Supreme Court Justice Abdulla Didi.
Speaking at a news conference, JSC Director Mumina Umar revealed that commission members in attendance at Tuesday's emergency meeting unanimously decided to investigate the three cases. The Judicial watchdog had previously launched investigations into two disciplinary cases concerning Judge Didi.
"Therefore, this committee is currently investigating a total of five cases", Mumina said.
However, no further details regarding the new cases were disclosed.
On Tuesday, JSC decided to conduct its investigations open to the public and local media outlets as per the request lodged by Judge Didi.
Adding that JSC was currently searching for a venue to conduct open investigations, Mumina stated that inquiries would resume once an adequate location was finalised.
The judicial watchdog assembled a special committee to probe two disciplinary cases concerning Judge Didi. The first is an enquiry into issues of conduct regarding the case under investigation by the Police. The second case concerns the issue of Judge Didi attending to his duties at the Supreme Court while under suspension.
JSC ordered the suspension of Judge Abdulla Didi on June 12 citing an ongoing police investigation. However, the Supreme Court issued a stay order on JSC's suspension the following day.
The commission subsequently rejected the court's stay order and maintained that the suspension was in effect. In response, the Supreme Court issued an order nullifying any and all actions taken by the commission or other state institution which disregarded the stay order.