Maldives Criminal Court on Sunday has thrown out a case against 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 2016 before he was arrested by the police after he came to the Maldives in June that year.
During the pre-trial hearing on Sunday, the defence had submitted several pre-trial motions arguing that the defendant had been charged with an offence he had allegedly committed before the anti-terrorism law came into effect.
The defence said the prosecution had been unable to provide any evidence to prove that the defendant had fought with the Jihadists after October 28, 2015 which was the date the new anti-terrorism law came into effect.
The prosecution countered by insisting that Rahman had lived in Pakistan well beyond the date in question but could not offer any evidence to satisfy the judge who had thrown out the case.
Three others have also been charged with attempt to join a foreign conflict.
The three men had allegedly traveled to Turkey in February last year 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.
