President Nasheed’s legal team excused themselves from court on Sunday, stating that it was impossible to provide their client with proper legal counsel because they were not provided with important documentary evidence on time.
In Sunday evening’s hearing, President Nasheed’s legal team were supposed to evaluate prosecution evidence that had been given in audio and video messages.
President Nasheed’s legal team received CDs of this evidence on Sunday morning. However, when they opened the CDs, they were either dysfunctional or were blank.
In a letter (see English translation attached) sent to the Chief Justice of the Criminal Court on Sunday 8 March, the legal team says:
“We as the lawyers for the accused, under an obligation to provide him with legal advise and opinions, must be able to read all the written materials for the case, examine all the witnesses and evidence, conduct legal research and prepare properly for the respective trial hearings.
“Since we are not being afforded that adequate time to prepare, we believe we are unable to dispense our legal advise and counsel to President Mohamed Nasheed and represent him on a fair and just basis and as such he is unable to exercise his rights under Article 51 (e) of the Constitution, which stipulates that an accused has the right be afforded adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to communicate with and instruct his legal counsel.
“As such, we believe we are unable to represent him in a fair and just manner… [we] have notified President Mohamed Nasheed that we have excused ourselves from attending the trial hearing. We are therefore submitting the above matter to your attention to be notified to the bench in charge of conducting the trial in the Criminal Court, as mentioned in the case heading.”