Malé, Maldives – Five suspects arrested for breaking into the safe of MU Store and stealing MVR 5 million have been released by the Criminal Court of Maldives due to lack of evidence.
In April 2016, three safes located in MU Store and GoodsMart offices were broken into and MVR 2.5 million and USD 211,000 (MVR 3.2 million) was stolen. Five suspects were prosecuted by the state for this case. The suspects also tied up a expat working as a security guard at the building adjacent in the stairwell.
The suspects are Ahmed Farish, Malé, Ahmed Shifan, Malé, Islmail Salah, Malé, Yusuf Shaheen, Malé, and Musa Yusuf, L. Gan.
The five suspects were charged with property damage, trespassing and unlawful restraint of a person.
Two witnesses testified that four of the suspects were seen leaving the crime scene with bags and entering a taxi. The witnesses added upon stopping the taxi and investigating, items such as masks, wigs, tape rolls were found. However, there were no witnesses who saw the actual crime take place.
Judge Ali Adam gave the verdict stating that there is no direct evidence linking the suspects to the burglary worth MVR 5.7 million. No cash has been found with the suspects, and the cash recovered by police resulted with no forensic evidence.
Police say that this is one of the biggest cases of burglary that has happened in the Maldives.
