Criminal Court has made the decision not to hear testimony of defense witnesses named by Ahmed Fayaz Ali Riza (Papa), Ahmed Thiham and Moosa Zameer – who are charged over what took place after explosion onboard presidential speedboat “Finifenma”
The decision was announced during the hearing held on Sunday morning.
Fayaz was in charge of President’s security, Thiham was Head of EOD Department of Maldives National Defense Force, and Zameer is also a MNDF officer.
Fayaz, Thiham and Zameer have been charged with obstruction of justice.
Defense witnesses had been presented to court when the defense attorneys for all three defendants said that they had received all the clarification they needed from testimony of state witnesses.
Both sides with be making their closing remarks at the next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday.
State attorney said in the trial that Fayaz had not sufficiently secured the scene of the crime after the explosion, and that Thiham and Zameer had acted upon Fayaz’s orders and taken evidence from the crime scene without proper protective measures to safeguard the evidence, and without proper equipment.
Fayaz has also been accused of deliberately stopping police officers who went to investigate the explosion from boarding the speedboat – a charge which he denies.