Chairman of the presidential commission investigating murders and enforced disappearances Husnu -al-Suood has stated that the report prepared by the commission on the murder of former Ungoofaaru MP Dr. Afrasheem Ali mentions substantial evidence against those suspected of being involved in the murder.
Dr. Afrasheem was murdered in the stairwell of his residence on October 2, 2012. The investigation of the murder by the presidential commission concluded that the murder was orchestrated by an extremist religious group over difference of opinion on certain matters pertaining to religion.
Home Minister Imran Abdulla on Tuesday revealed at the Parliament that the report prepared by the commission does not clearly indicate who needs to be immediately arrested over the murder. The minister said the Home Ministry met with the commission and the Prosecutor General (PG) on two occasions to identify who needs to be arrested, and said the commission had failed to pinpoint such a person.
Suood took to Twitter to respond to Imran's statement, and reiterated that Dr. Afrasheem was murdered by an extremist religious organization. The report makes it clear the reason behind the murder, and that the contract to murder the scholar was given to a notorious gang with strong links to extremist religious organisations and are known to commit criminal offences, said Suood.
The three witness statements included in the report clearly names those behind the extremist organization beyond doubt, and the intel collected over the past seven years by National Counter Terrorism Centre and Maldives Police Service can corraborate the facts, said Suood.
"Therefore, there is no room to state that the commission's investigation was incomplete", he wrote in his tweet.
While Suood claims the report contains enough evidence to implicate the suspects, the presidential commission has been given the authority to order the arrest of, and raise charges on suspects. However, no arrests have been made, and no cases were forwarded to the PG for prosecution to date regarding Dr. Afrasheem's case.
