Former president Abdulla Yameen failed to explain reasons why his former vice president Ahmed Adeeb would lie about him in relation to the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) resort lease corruption scandal, the prosecution contended at the High Court on Wednesday.
Yameen was convicted of accepting and laundering a USD 1.1 million bribe from Yoosuf Naeem to lease Vaavu Aarah island as part of the MMPRC corruption scandal during his administration.
Yameen was sentenced to 11 years in prison and Yoosuf Naeem was sentenced to three years and two months in prison. Both Yameen and Naeem appealed the verdict at the High Court. At the appeal hearing on Wednesday, the prosecution responded to Yameen’s arguments.
Some 14 points of appeal were submitted on behalf of Yameen, some of which concerned the testimony of Adeeb and former MMPRC managing director Abdulla Ziyath. Defence lawyers argued that their testimony should not be given weight as they were the only ones to have been convicted over the scandal after confessing involvement.
In response, public prosecutor Ahmed Shafeeu said the lower court’s verdict was not based solely on the weight of Adeeb and Ziyath’s testimony. The state produced further evidence to corroborate their testimony, he said.
The defence failed to establish any reason why Adeeb should have to lie about Yameen, he said.
Adeeb was the tourism minister when the Auditor General’s office first flagged the MMPRC corruption scandal. Then-president Yameen was the one who later appointed Adeeb as vice president and kept him in charge of the tourism ministry, Shafeeu noted.
The state’s response to Yameen’s arguments took nearly three hours. After that, Yameen was also offered about an hour for rebuttal.
Yameen’s lead counsel, his former vice president Dr Mohamed Jaleel Ahmed, said the prosecution failed to establish any facts to prove guilt. The prosecution’s case was entirely built on theory or opinion, he said.
To back up his argument, Jameel noted that only the money deposited to Yameen and Yoousuf Naeem’s accounts was what the prosecution showed as an element of the crime. It was alleged to have been bribes but only Adeeb and Ziyath testified to that, he added.
A three-judge panel at the High Court is hearing the appeal with Judge Huzaifa Mohamed presiding over Yameen’s part of the appeal and Judge Hassan Shafeeu presiding over Yoousf Naeem’s part. The other judge on the bench is Mohamed Saleem.
Yameen’s predicament
Yameen will be barred from contesting in the upcoming presidential election unless his prison sentence is overturned.
According to the constitution, if a presidential candidate has been convicted of a criminal offence and sentenced to a term of more than 12 months, three years must have elapsed since his release or pardon.
On top of the Aarah conviction, Yameen is on trial on separate charges of alleged bribery for the leasing of Raa Fuggiri island.
Hearings of the Fuggiri trial are ongoing at the criminal court as the Aarah case appeal continues at the High Court. Yameen believes that the Fuggiri trial is being fast-tracked with consecutive hearings scheduled close together.
However, four hearings were recently cancelled due to co-defendant Ahmed ‘Krik’ Riza’s illness and the trial is behind schedule.
Aarah case
According to the charges raised by the state, Vaavu Aarah was transferred to the tourism ministry on August 9, 2015. A company called 2G Pvt Ltd with a 99 percent stake owned by the co-defendant Yoosuf Naeem was created on August 13, 2015.
On September 8, 2015, 99 percent of shares in 2G Pvt Ltd were sold to LA Resorts Pvt Ltd.
When the MMPRC handed over Aarah to 2G on September 9, 2015, LA Resorts gave a check of USD 1 million to the MMPRC as the island’s lease acquisition cost and a check of USD 1 million to Yoosuf Naeem.
On September 13, 2015, when the money was deposited to Yoosuf Naeem’s account, a check for USD 1 million from the account was given to president Yameen on September 15, 2015. Two days later, the money was deposited to an account opened under Yameen’s name at the HSBC Bank, according to the prosecution.
Both Yameen and Yoosuf Naeem pleaded not guilty to the charges. The transaction between them was a sale of US dollars for Dhivehi Rufiyaa, they said, claiming it was unrelated to the leasing of Aarah and denying any act of corruption.
