Nazim, who had served as the defence minister under former president Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik and incumbent president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, is serving an 11-year prison sentence for smuggling and possessing dangerous weapons. In the appeal hearing Thursday morning, the High Court took testimonies from two drivers and two bodyguards of Nazim. They are among the witnesses presented by the defence but left out by the Criminal Court during the trial. After a picture of the bag which contained the pistol and three bullets allegedly found in Nazim’s possession was shown the four witnesses denied seeing such a bag from Nazim. He always had a laptop bag, in which he was thought to have carried documents, they said. The witnesses also said the keys to Nazim’s apartment were usually left in his car. They noted that the car keys were kept in an unlocked drawer of a cupboard at the minister’s bureau, located at the army headquarters. Defence attorney Aishath Sheeza said their testimonies were proof that several people had access to Nazim’s apartment. In Thursday’s hearing, the High Court also heard the testimony of the police officer who analysed the fingerprint taken off the pistol. Sub-inspector Usaamath Mohamed said a fingerprint was lifted off the pistol, but it was not a match to those of Nazim, any of his family members or anyone in the police database. In addition, the testimony of Ahmed Muslim, who serves as the head of the police’s special operations department, was taken in Thursday’s hearing. He briefed the judges on the rules, regulations and procedures pertaining to special operations. The last two hearings held in the case had been held behind closed doors. At those hearings, the court had taken testimonies from two previously unheard witnesses. The appellate court is currently summoning the remaining witnesses presented by Nazim during the trial but were not brought in. During the Criminal Court trial, Nazim’s attorneys had submitted more than 50 witnesses, including President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, then police chief Hussein Waheed, home minister Umar Naseer, and then tourism minister Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor who later went onto become the vice president before being deposed after an assassination attempt on the president. The Criminal Court, however, did not summon most of the witnesses. Prosecutors have also submitted a fresh classified document as evidence to the High Court. Nazim’s appeal hearings resumed early this month after a long break. Before the hearing on December 3, the High Court had held two hearings over Nazim's appeal in June, but the case had been stalled ever since. The case stalled after three out of the five judges were removed from the bench that had been looking into the appeal. Judge Abdul Ghani Mohamed, who had presided over the case, and judge Shuaib Hussein Zakariyya were transferred to the court’s branch established in the southern part of the country, while judge Abbas Shareef retired. Judges Abdulla Didi and Shujau Usman were on the Criminal Court bench that ruled against Nazim. They have since been promoted to the High Court, but are not on the bench that had been constituted to look into the appeal filed by Nazim. With the absence of both Didi and Usman from the bench, Nazim’s appeal is presided over by judges Ali Sameer, Abdu Rauf and Abdulla Hameed. In May, Nazim was allowed to get treatment in Singapore for blurred vision. He spent 45 days in Singapore, and upon his return was re-taken to the Asseyri Prison in Hinmafushi island. Following another request but this time to get Nazim to India, the government had granted permission for him to go to Singapore for medical treatment After Nazim was not allowed to travel to India for medical treatment, his younger brother Adam Azim and legal counsel Husnu Al Suood travelled to Indian capital New Delhi in September to meet with officials of the International Red Cross Committee to apprise them of the status of prisoners. Nazim’s family had also announced their intention to follow jailed former President Mohamed Nasheed’s lead and file a case with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The statement by Nazim's family, who claim that it was the only way for him to get justice, came after the UN group had ruled that former president Nasheed's imprisonment had been arbitrary. The Maldives government, however, has refused to accept the opinion.