High Court has commenced the appeal hearings today two years after appeal cases were submitted against the two suspects who were convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison, and the two suspects who were acquitted in the murder of Yameen Rasheed.
High Court has commenced the appeal hearings today two years after appeal cases were submitted against the two suspects who were convicted of the murder and sentenced to life in prison, and the two suspects who were acquitted in the murder of blogger Yameen Rasheed.
Yameen was murdered in the stairwell of his residence with multiple stab wounds in April 2017.
In the murder, the State pressed charges against Ismail Haisham Rasheed of Henveiru Annaarumaage, Ahmed Zihan Ismail of Maafannu Irasmikuge, Mohamed Dhifran of Sindbadge in Gaafu Dhaalu Gahdhoo, Hassan Shifaz of Maafannu Kudhehige, Ismail Rasheed of Maafannu Thaif and Hussain Ziyad of Maafannu Kolhufushi East.
Out of these, Haisham and Zihan were convicted. In 2022, Criminal Court sentenced them to life in prison, and to pay MVR 1.3 million as 'diya' [financial compensation paid to the heirs of a victim in the case of murder].
The remaining suspects were acquitted. The State then appealed the the verdicts on Dhifran and Ismail Rasheed at the High Court.
The appeal hearings were begun in High Court yesterday with a target of proceeding all appeals together. The first part dealt with the appeal against the prison sentences of Haisham and Zihan which were submitted by them.
Defence lawyers of Haisham and Zihan said that some of the secret witnesses who had given statements had sent letters to the lower court asking to withdraw their statements. They said that the court had failed to take this into account, and concluded the case, adding this is against legal practices. They further said that even in Islamic Shariah, if witnesses withdraw their statements, then the crimes cannot be proven beyond doubt.
The lawyers further said that there were contradictions even within the statements themselves. As such, although witnesses had initially said during investigations that the defendants had been in the area where the murder had been committed, there statements in court had differed from this. They added that there were also contradictions in statements of three witnesses who claim to be at the same place at the same time. The lawyers said that the lower court had failed to take any of these into account.
The Defence lawyers then said that although Police stated that the bodily features of a person seen in video footage is a match to Zihan, a number of features matching is not evidence of it being a specific person.
They then said that although Police said a fingerprint on a camera in the stairwell where Yameen was murdered matches Haisham, there are questions about the chain of custody of said evidence and there is room to allege that this was fabricated.
Based on these, Zihan and Haisham appeal to the High Court to grant them a retrial.
Dhifran and Ismail Rasheed's appeal was not proceeded yesterday due to time constraints. The Judges' Bench announced that a later date for that appeal hearing would be notified.
The High Court bench hearing the case consists of Judge Hassam Shafeeu, Judge Fathimath Faruheeza and Judge Abdul Maniu Husain, with Judge Shafeeu presiding.
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