The Criminal Court has refused to accept the procedural errors highlighted by JP Leader Qasim Ibrahim's lawyers in the three charges against him. The court has scheduled a hearing on 27th April for Qasim Ibrahim to answer against these charges.
Qasim Ibrahim was taken to Dhoonidhoo once the hearing was over.
Speaking to the press after the hearing Qasim's lawyer Hisaan Hussein said that the three charges against Qasim are based on a single act Qasim. She said that when they highlighted that two charges cannot be made over a single act, the judge refused to accept it.
She said that the charges were based on the speech Qasim gave at Kunooz and then the next two are just allegations. She said that hence she does not believe that Qasim can be charged for three counts.
In addition she said that they were given the chance to answer to the charges even today but delayed it because there were researches they need to do.
The judges bench in today's hearing consisted of Chief Judge Abdullah Baary, Judge Ahmed Shakeel and Judge Adam Arif.
In today's hearing Qasim said that he is not sure whether the case will be fair if Chief Judge Baary presides over the case. Qasim requested to remove Baaru from the bench.
Qasim said on Friday Judge Baary cocluded the hearing while he was giving a statement and Judge was even not willing hear his statement.
Judge Baary said that the defendants can only talk about the current case and they cannot talk about previous cases.
One must wonder if the defendant has a limited time to respond according to Islamic Shariah.
Qasim was given the chance to shake hands with his family members after today's trial.
A lot of people believe that Qasim's case will get fast tracked and sentenced to jail like cases of Nasheed and Nazim and Imran.
Court refuses to accept the procedural errors highlighted by Qasim's lawyers - next hearing on 27th
