Criminal Court has decreed that today's hearing of Lahiru Madhushanka, the alleged "sniper", will be closed off to media.
The hearings were scheduled for 1:00 pm today and that journalists were informed that the hearings will be closed off for media personnel. The court was to hear the testimonies of three anonymous witnesses. In the last hearing, statements of two anonymous witnesses were taken.
Both the alleged "sniper" and former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb had been charged with planning and carrying out an assassination attempt on the President. In addition to the two, Fazeel Hameed of M. Lily Park and Ishaq Hussain of G. Oivaali.
A middleman who had claimed to have brought in Madhushanka into the Maldives reported to Sri Lankan media sources that Madhushanka was brought into the country to fill the position of a bodyguard by five Maldivians. The middleman alleged that Madhushanka did not possess the required qualifications for the job, as the five Maldivians wanted a former Army man for the job. He said that Madhushanka had lied about his qualifications and that he was completely unaware of any plots to assassinate the President.
However, the state alleges that Madhushanka was fully aware of the plot and had agreed to take the hit.
