Drug dealer released to house arrest by Criminal Court

One of the six so-called “major drug dealers” who was arrested by the Maldives Police Service last April was released to house arrest by the Criminal Court on Tuesday.

A Police Media Official said that in addition to releasing Hussain Mohamed Manik, of H. Rehi, to house arrest, the Criminal Court had also ordered that the investigation be wrapped up in one month’s time. Police did not reveal the reasons behind the decision.

The Media Official said that Hussain’s investigation was the biggest investigation in the Police’s history. He said that if they had to rush things and wrap up the case in a month, it was possible that the investigation wouldn’t be as thorough as it could be.

The Criminal Court’s Senior Magistrate Abdulla Mohamed said that the decision to release Hussain to house arrest had been made because the investigation had not been completed despite five months having passed since he was arrested. He further said that if they wanted it was possible to bring charges against Hussain immediately, adding that keeping Hussain under house arrest would not hinder the Police investigation in any way.

The Magistrate said that the 30-day deadline to complete the investigation had been given because a conviction would be unlikely due to loss of evidence if the investigation was delayed further. He said that there have been cases where delays had led to intimidation of witnesses due to contact with the defendant.

“One of the main reasons we fail to get a conviction in such cases is because witnesses refuse to testify,” he said.

Hussain was one of the two people who had been arrested in connection to 1kg of drugs that were smuggled in to Malé. The drugs had been hidden inside some kitchen utensils inside the baggage of an elderly couple that had arrived in Maldives from India. Police said that Hussain was a ‘high profile person’ in the drugs investigation and that they had arrested after keeping him under surveillance for a while.