Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb, who was freed after former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih commuted his sentence with five days left of his term, has left the country.
Adeeb had been serving a 20-year prison sentence over the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) corruption scandal.
Adeeb flew overseas on Friday night. His destination was unclear.
The President exercised his powers under the parole law to grant clemency to Adeeb during the previous government.
The MMPRC’s former managing director Abdulla Ziyath's jail sentence was also commuted along with Adeeb's.
Ziyath was the company’s managing director when more than MVR 1.3 billion owed to the state was stolen through the MMPRC.
The chief architect of the embezzlement scheme, former Vice President Adeeb, was the Tourism Minister at the time.
Adeeb was also serving a 20-year jail sentence after he was convicted over the embezzlement of more than MVR 2 billion from the MMPRC during former President Abdulla Yameen’s administration.
He was sentenced under a plea agreement with the state. Adeeb served three years and one month of the sentence.
However, he was under house arrest for many years over a medical condition.
In 2019, Adeeb fled the country as a stowaway on a tugboat. He was caught in India’s Tuticorin.
