News

Secret trial for alleged jihadist

Criminal Court on Sunday agreed to the prosecution's request for a secret trial for a local man charged for allegedly joining jihadists in Pakistan.

According to prosecutors, Mohamed Abdul Rahman had gone to Pakistan for his studies in 2007. However, Rahman, in 2009 had shifted to a town called Wana in South Waziristan Agency in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) before joining a group of jihadist fighters.

According to the charges, Rahman had been fighting for the group till last year. He was arrested by the police after he came to the Maldives in June last year.

The defendant was scheduled to respond to the charges during Sunday's hearing before the trial was made secret.

The reason for the state's request remains unclear.

Rahman is facing between 17 to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Three others have also been charged with attempt to join a foreign conflict.

The three men had allegedly traveled to Turkey in February and had attempted to enter war torn Syria before they were arrested on the Turkish border.

Their trial is currently ongoing.

Maldives authorities have looked to stem the flow of locals joining the Syrian war, where various sources claims that Maldives has the highest number of fighters in Syria per capita.

Government has looked to take measures to curb the rising extremist ideologies in the island nation with the parliament in August passed a national policy on terrorism.