The Criminal Court last night ordered the release of seven men arrested by police in connection with a series of stabbings over the weekend, including the murder of a 17 year-old boy n Friday.
The boy was stabbed in the leg as he was climbing into a lorry, severing a major artery, and slowly bled to death despite eight hours of treatment and blood transfusions.
A police media official said the seven men were arrested after police received information that the men were connected to the death of the 17 year-old boy, and that they had planned similar attacks.
“It is the duty of the police to maintain the peace of the society under article number 49 of the Constitution,’’ he said. “So in order to prevent further attacks they had planned, we requested the Criminal Court grant an extension of their detention, as we had information that there were more planned attacks.’’
He said that all seven men had recent police records of assault and battery and other gang-related crimes.
‘’But the Criminal Court, however, released them,” he added.
Minivan News understands that senior police are furious at the court’s ruling.
“At dawn, some people attacked the private property of a very senior police officer. They burned his motorbike, which cost over Rf100,000,’’ the spokesperson noted, when queried as to the current state of security in Male’.
When Minivan News called the mobile phone of Spokesperson for the Criminal Court Ahmed Riffath, seeking a comment on the ruling, the man who answered claimed Riffath was not there he did not know when or how he could be reached, and quickly hung up.
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