Owing to a change in the court’s schedule, the start of the first trial of Nezaam Ali, the Muslim scholar charged with nine counts of child rape, was postponed from yesterday.
In the circumstances, Justice Navindra Singh who will be presiding over the trial, has adjourned the matter until 9 am next Tuesday, when it is now scheduled to commence.
The matter had initially been set for commencement on February 19th but was subsequently postponed to yesterday’s date after one of the man’s attorneys, Stanley Moore, requested additional time.
Ali, then of South Turkeyen, was charged in 2012 with raping nine boys.
The charges alleged that between December, 2011 and January, 2012, Ali, being a teacher attached to the Turkeyen Masjid, engaged in sexual activity with the children.
Ali was committed to stand trial in 2014 by Magistrate Alex Moore.
However, during a visit to the Supreme Court in January, 2017, the mother of three of the boys and an official from Childcare and Protection Agency discovered that the birth certificates and medical reports for the boys were missing from each of the nine files.
The files were later reconstructed and the case reopened. In February last year, Magistrate Moore recommitted Ali to stand trial in the High Court.
