Prosecutor General has appealed the verdict issued by the Criminal Court, clearing Ali Shah from Thinadhoo island of all charges raised against him.
The Criminal Court on Thursday ruled that the four charges raised against Ali Shah for the death of his wife, Ziyadha Naeem as not proven.
Ziyadha from Thinadhoo island of Gh. atoll passed away while being treated at state run Indra Gandhi Memorial Hospital in capital Male' in 2015 for injuries sustained due to domestic and sexual abuse.
Her husband, Ali Shah was charged with marital rape, manslaughter, negligent homicide and possession of pornographic material. The trial began during August 2016 and the case was concluded on Thursday morning. In a shocking move, Judge Ibrahim Ali had ruled that all four charges against Ali Shah cannot be proven.
The verdict ensued public outrage, with several people criticizing the court's decision on different social media platforms.
AVAS has been informed that the Prosecutor General's Office is seeking to appeal all four charges against Ali Shah at the High Court. The necessary procedures are currently underway.
The court proceedings of the case were held behind closed doors, which is the usual practice for cases of the nature. Therefore, the media was not able to obtain any details of the court proceedings.
The case was first overseen by Judge Adam Arif who was later transferred to another court.
During investigation, the police had concluded that 37 year old Ziyadha was both physically and sexually abused by her husband. The preliminary report of Ziyadha's postmortem showed that she had sustained several injuries to different organs of her body
Shah was placed under state custody during his trial.
