Court acquits pair arrested for 2009 armed robbery of Campus Didi

The Criminal Court has acquitted two persons arrested for the alleged street robbery of prominent businessman Ahmed Ibrahim ‘Campus’ Didi.

In the one paragraph verdict uploaded on the Criminal Court’s official website, the court stated that not enough evidence to rule that the pair was guilty was presented to the court.

The two persons charged in the matter were Aseel Ismail, 20 of Henveiru Agi and Gassan Ali of Fares-Mathoda in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll.

On 28 December 2009, ‘Campus’ Didi was stabbed and robbed of almost US$300,000 in cash while he was on his way back to home with the proceeds of sales from his shops in Male’.

Police said the incident occurred late at night around 12.30 pm on Fareedhee Magu, in front of the Novelty Bookshop.

A Bangladeshi man accompanying Didi suffered a gash to his arm, while Didi was badly injured and was flown to India for medical treatment. Eye witnesses told the newspaper Haveeru at the time that the pavement outside the shop resembled “a red river of blood.”

Haveeru also reported the attackers escaped with almost US$200,000 and Rf 1 million in cash.

Mohamed Ibrahim Didi, younger brother of Campus Didi, told the media that his brother’s condition was very serious.

The incident occurred following a series of armed robberies of large amounts of money from local businessmen. A man was robbed of over $US30,000 by a gang who attacked him at Gadiburu roundabout in late November that year, while the previous month of the same year four men were arrested after attacking two men with iron rods and stealing Rf762,700 (US$60,000).

On January 17 last year, police arrested 19 people in connection with Didi’s stabbing.

Chief Inspector of Police Mohamed Jamsheed told the media at the time that the 19 suspects were arrested with variety of weapons, including knives, spears and knuckle dusters, which police believed were used in the attack.

“We suspect these weapons were used to stab Campus Didi, as some of the [forensic evidence] we needed was found on these weapons,” Jamsheed said.

Five of the people arrested were under the age of 18 and out of the 19, only a few cooperated with police while most remained silent.

Gassan and Aseel both have been identified as the police as dangerous criminals, although they have not been yet found guilty of any criminal charges.

Today Prosecutor General Ahmed Muiz told Minivan News that the PG will study the case further and decide whether or not to appeal the verdict in the High Court.

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