A person arrested with evidence for sexual assault of a child has been released from the court at the remand hearing because the sexual assault of a child is “not a major criminal offence”.

The man released from the Criminal Court yesterday was arrested on 28 May 2020 and was remanded by 15 days the following day upon request from the Maldives Police Service.

He was then brought in for a remand hearing on 12 June where it was requested to keep the man in custody until the end of the trial. However, the court extended the remand by ten days. The court, in their ruling, also said that no party has appealed the decision not release the accused.

The ruling said that when the ten days in remand given on 12 June expire, police requested another extension on the remand.

However, despite the evidence against the accused, the Criminal Court decided to release him because the charges against him are not in the list of major criminal offences. The court ruling from the Criminal Court said that despite the seriousness of the crimes facing the accused, the longest a person can be in remand, that is not charged with a major criminal offence, is 15 days, according to the High Court regulations.

The recent High Court decision states that aside from those charged with major criminal offences mention in the law, the longest a person that is arrested can be in custody under remand is 15 days.

Sexual crimes are not major criminal offences as per the law.

The Criminal Court said that there is still the opportunity to keep the accused in custody under Article 30 of the Child-related Sex Crimes Act which states that the Commissioner of Police may request the Prosecutor General’s Office to ask the court to keep a person arrested for sexual assault to remain in custody of the police until the conclusion of the investigation and the court case.

Commissioner of Police, Mohamed Hameed, made such a request to keep Anees Hilmy, the man accused of raping an 11-year-old at a guesthouse, in police custody. While the Criminal Court had complied with the request, this was the first time such a request had been made in five years.

The ruling by the Criminal Court said that the Investigative Officer on the case had said that the last two remand hearings, the request for extension was not made under the Child-related Sex Crimes Act and to make such a request now is does not make sense.