The High Court of Maldives has upheld the verdict on one officer and nullified the verdict on the other officer who were imprisoned following the blast on the presidential speedboat in September 2015.
The Criminal Court sentenced two officers of Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), Ahmed Thiham and Moosa Zameer to 4 months and 24 days. The two officers were sentenced claiming their actions on board following the blast were in conflict with standard policy. As the sentence was appealed at the High Court, during the separate hearings held on Tuesday, high court declared the sentence on Ahmed Thiham valid and the sentence on Moosa Zameer invalid.
The sentence on Thiham was upheld by two of the three judges presiding the bench while Judge Shuaib Hussain Zakariyya stated there was not enough evidence to incriminate him, and that the lower court's verdict should be nullified. Meanwhile, sentence on Zameer was nullified unanimously by the three judges presiding over the case.
Both Thiham and Zameer were released when the criminal court sentenced them in 2016, as they were held in custody for period longer than their sentence.