High Court overturns decision to reject witnesses to counter police testimony

The High Court has overturned the decision by the Criminal Court to reject five witnesses produced by the defense to counter police testimony that an individual called someone an infidel during a protest in Male’.

The decision to reject the witnesses was made during the trial of Ahmed Faiz, a native of the Feydhoo district of Addu City, who has been charged with calling a Muslim an infidel in public.

Faiz produced five witnesses to counter the testimony of two police officers produced by the state as eye witnesses in the case. However, the five witnesses were rejected by the Criminal Court following a pre-trial motion filed by the state.

Faiz subsequently appealed the decision with the High Court.

The appeal was overseen by a three-member bench, who decided by unanimous consensus on Tuesday that under the Evidence Act, witnesses produced to challenge the credibility of other witnesses may also be treated as related evidence.

The bench also decided that even if the reason for producing the five witnesses was described in brief in the defense witnesses’ form, it was described in detail in the form submitted to counter the pre-trial motion by the state, and that the Criminal Court should therefore have examined these details before making its decision.

The bench decided that the complete rejection of defense witnesses based solely on shortcomings of words used in the form without reflecting on those details curtail the rights of defendants guaranteed under Article 51 (g) of the Constitution.

The High Court therefore overturned the decision, and ordered the Criminal Court to review it based on the details and the standards set under the Evidence Act.