Criminal Court Judge Ismail Rasheed has resigned after denying allegations from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC).
On May 23, JSC announced it would begin proceedings to remove Judge Rasheed for violating the Criminal Procedure Act and not acting in an independent manner when issuing his verdict in former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb's trial. On July 14, 2020, Judge Rasheed dismissed all seven charges raised by the state against Adeeb over his involvement in the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) corruption scandal.
The judge rejected the charges citing the lack of sufficient credible evidence against Adeeb, as the charges are largely dependent on confession agreements signed between the defendant and the Prosecutor General's Office, which holds no validity in court. However, JSC stated that it recovered a pen drive which showed the judge's verdict was written months prior.
JSC stated the pen drive contained a file dating back to February 22, 2020, which had the transcript of his verdict he issued in July of that year. The judge's behavior shows a lack of integrity, since he had planned to dismiss Adeeb's charges months prior to his verdict, and had kept work-related files in a pen drive instead of the court's computer system, said JSC.
After his resignation, Ismail Rasheed said the allegations are baseless since he did not own the pen drive, and that he has not been given the opportunity to respond to the JSC.
The motion of the JSC to remove the judge is currently being reviewed by the Parliament Judiciary Committee.