For the first time in the country's history, Criminal Court on Sunday decided to allow a family member who lives abroad to testify via Skype in the trial over missing journalist Ahmed Rilwan.
The Maldives Independent reporter Rilwan went missing nearly four years ago and his disappearance remains arguably the biggest unsolved mystery in the archipelago.
Prosecutors have charged two men - Ahmed Aalif Rauf and Mohamed Nooraddeen with terrorism. Both however, had denied the charges.
Investigators believe that Rilwan had been forced into a red car owned by Aalif where the victim's DNA had been found which had been matched to Rilwan's mother.
But in order to tie the evidence to Rilwan, prosecutors needed to prove that none of his immediate family members had been inside the car.
Police had carried out a mitochondrial DNA test of one of the five hairs found in the car.
A mitochondrial DNA test traces a person's matrilineal or mother-line ancestry using the DNA in his or her mitochondria which is passed down by the mother unchanged, to all her children, both male and female.
The nature of the DNA test meant there was no conclusive way to prove that the hair had belonged to the victim as the particular DNA strand would be present in any of her children.
So far Rilwan's four sisters and three brothers along with his mother had testified that they had never been inside the car. However, during their testimonies, it emerged that Rilwan had a fourth brother who was living in Malaysia. As the new discovery had not been included in the prosecution witness list, the judge said a decision to allow a new testimony would be made after hearing the other witnesses.
During the hearing on Sunday, the judge said he would allow the new witness to testify. The witness would need to go down to the Maldives embassy in Malaysia on Thursday where his testimony would be heard by the court via Skype in the presence of an embassy official.
This would be the first time in Maldives' history that a witness testimony would be heard visa Skype.
Both Aalif Rauf and Nooraddeen have been previously apprehended on suspicions of links to the case. However they were released back then, when summoned to court for remand extension.
