Culture

Criminal Court finds two businessmen charged with drug trafficking innocent

14 Jun 2011, 5:26 PM

Ahmed Nazeer

The Criminal Court has ruled that the Prosecutor General had been unable to prove that two businessmen Abdulatheef Mohamed and Hassan Ali charged with drug trafficking were guilty of the crime, due to lack of evidence and witnesses presented to the court.

Abdulatheef was arrested by police after they discovered more than one kilogram of illegal narcotics inside his car trunk.

However, the court said that there was not a single piece of evidence presented to the court suggesting that the illegal narcotics were imported with the knowledge of both Hassan and Abdulatheef.

The Criminal Court ruled that there was no reason to suspect that Abdulatheef and Hassan had an intention to traffic drugs.

During the investigation period of Abdulatheef, the Criminal Court summoned and ordered his release, a day after the High Court invalidated a letter sent by the Criminal Court to police asking to release the suspect under house arrest.

The Criminal Court first asked police to keep Abdulatheef in detention until his trial reached a conclusion. However the Criminal Court later sent a letter to the police changing the court’s first decision and asking police to switch Latheef’s detention to house arrest.

The police then appealed at the High Court to invalidate the letter. The High Court judges determined that the order in the letter was not consistent with the applicable laws concerning detention, and overruled it.

Latheef was arrested last year in December, as he was about to drive off in his car after loading some vegetables into the trunk.

Police officers attended the area, stopped his car and unpacked the loaded items in his presence and discovered 1083.4246 grams of illegal narcotics containing the substance Tetrahydrocannabinol (found in cannabis).

The Prosecutor General appealed at the High Court asking for Abdulatheef to be detained until his trial reached a conclusion and to rule that Criminal Court’s order to release him was unlawful.

However, the High Court ruled that there was no grounds to overrule the Criminal Court’s decision.

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