Today's High Court hearings of the Haveeru case has been cancelled after the three shareholders of the paper, also the co-respondents of the case, had failed to attend the hearings. The case was filed in High Court by former employees of Haveeru, after Civil Court issued a ruling against the former employees.
The case was filed on behalf of the 33 employees of Haveeru. Some of the individuals who had filed the case had withdrawn their suit. Current editor of Mihaaru Ismail Naseer, Haveeru news editor Moosa Latheef, employees Rif'ath Mohamed, Ahmed Abdullah Saeed, Ahmed Hamdhoon, Abdul Rasheed Hussain and Niumathullah Idhrees had not withdrawn their case.
Shareholders, Ibrahim Rasheed Moosa, Abdullah Farooq and Mohamed Naeem are listed as co-respondents of the case.
No reason was given for the no-show of both the shareholders and their legal representation. High Court had said the Court will enact measures against them for having failed to attend the session.
The Attorney General's Office had also filed the case in High Court. The case is yet to go on trial.
Civil Court had ordered Home Ministry to penalize any and all employees of Haveeru if they are found to be working with any other medias than Haveeru for a period of two years. Most of Haveeru employees are currently working in Mihaaru.
The verdict issued by Civil Court in the case filed by the shareholders over the ownership says that if the event Haveeru employees are working in another media outlet and Haveeru majority shareholders files complaint in Home Ministry, Maldives Media Council or any Government agency, then the Government must take action within seven days. Both Home Ministry and Media Council had said that though the verdict orders as such, there is no action that could be taken.
AG office said the verdict was a breach of the Constitution and laws.
