Court rejects evidence list for Gayoom

The criminal court has rejected a list of defence witnesses and evidence for former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who is on trial for terrorism.

His lawyer Maumoon Hameed said Sunday the list was rejected because it was printed without border lines.

“Criminal court has sent back our witnesses and exhibits lists for, well, colouring outside the lines. Apparently, when we printed our lists, borders were not drawn on the text boxes and so the form became an unauthorized version. I guess that’s one way for the Prosecutor General’s Office to dodge a bullet,” he tweeted.

Gayoom was arrested during a state of emergency in connection with an alleged coup plot. He was charged with terrorism and is detained for the duration of the trial. The 80-year-old former strongman will be jailed for up to 20 years if found guilty.

His legal team submitted the list with 108 defence witnesses, 36 pieces of evidence and 29 pre-trial motions.

“Since the Prosecutor General’s Office can only narrow down the alleged date of the offence to the last 5 years (“since 2013”), we have erred on the side of caution,” Hameed tweeted.

The court did not reject the 29 pre-trial motions that were submitted.

Gayoom is also facing obstruction charges, along with jailed justices Abdulla Saeed and Ali Hameed, for allegedly refusing to hand over their mobile phones to police.

Lawyers for the trio recently recused themselves from the “arbitrary” case in protest over the court’s refusal to consider Gayoom’s ailing health.

He denies all charges.