Criminal court on Wednesday threw out the charges over an alleged sniper plot to kill the Maldives president to free three suspects including the Sri Lankan national.
The 24-year-old Sri Lankan, Lahiru Madushanka, was arrested on October 24, 2015 on suspicion that he was a sniper hired to assassinate former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
In addition to Madhushanka, former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor who is already serving 33 in prison over two separate counts of terrorism, two locals Fazeel Hameed and Ishaag Hussain had been charged in the case.
Adheeb, Fazeel and Madhushanka have been charged with conspiracy to murder while Ishaag has been charged as an accessory.
Prosecutors had said Adheeb and Fazeel had conspired to hire a sniper to assassinate president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
Madhushanka had accepted the contract and flown into the Maldives to carry out the assassination, the charges said.
According to prosecutors Ishaag was the mediator who delivered the contract payment.
Defence lawyers confirmed that the court had thrown out the case citing a lack of evidence. The court had also freed Madushanka along with the two locals, lawyers said.
The development came days after Sri Lanka's minister of provincial councils and local government, Faiszer Musthapha who was in Maldives to attend the inauguration of the archipelago's new president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had met with Madushanka at the country's main prison in Maafushi island.
Madhushanka's family had denied the allegations insisting that her went to the Maldives seeking employment but did not get to meet the contact person there. After few days he has decided to return to Sri Lanka and the Maldivian authorities arrested him at the airport.
