Supreme Court of Maldives has issued a temporary order to defer the implementation of the 12-year jail sentence passed on the President of Adhaalath Party Shiekh Imran Abdulla until the bench comes to a decision after reviewing the sentence.
The temporary order instructs authorities to defer the implementation of the sentence and to refrain from taking any action against Imran. The order comes in the wake of an appeal filed by Imran on October 24, asking the Supreme Court to review the sentence passed on the political leader who was charged with terrorism for a speech delivered at the 2015 May Day rally, which the prosecution alleged, incited violence.
The Criminal Court sentence passed in 2015 was upheld by the High Court in 2016. In October 2017, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by the defendant.