JSC: More than 200 cases of judges under investigation

The Judicial Service Commission has stated that it is reviewing more than 200 cases regarding judges.

JSC issued a statement via twitter today that read that it had received a lot of misconduct cases regarding judges after the amendments to the law governing JSC were implemented in September. These cases included cases of undue influence, corruption, sexual harassment, and judicial overreach.

JSC stated that it is currently reviewing several cases of four Supreme Court judges.

They are:

• Chief Justice Dr. Ahmed Abdulla Didi – 18 cases
• Judge Abdulla Areef – 14 cases
• Judge Adam Mohamed Abdulla – 16 cases
• Judge Abdul Ghani Mohamed – 3 cases

Press Release: pic.twitter.com/6n9Pne7VOQ

— JSC Maldives (@MaldivesJSC) November 12, 2019

The four judges of the Supreme Court are alleged to have influenced the work of other government bodies, lower courts and independent institutions such as the Human Rights Commission and Elections Commission. The JSC statement also read that these allegations were well-known in the public and were noted in the 2013 report by Gabriela Knaul, the UN Special Rapporteur as well as in the report of retired South African justice, Johann Kriegler in 2019.

The Commission also stated that it is investigating the case of former Criminal Court Chief Judge Ahmed Hailam for the cartoon posted in a Viber group that depicted cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of the current President and Speaker of the parliament.