The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) Chairperson Fayyaz Ismail is not facing any criminal accusations despite being summoned to police, his lawyer Mahfooz Saeed told reporters today.
According to the police chit sent yesterday, Fayyaz was being summoned because they suspect he received financial benefits after some employees of the Road Development Corporation (RDC) allegedly embezzled company funds.
But speaking to reporters outside the police building, lawyer Mahfooz Saeed said Fayyaz was summoned because a company, that did business with RDC, received a payment from RDC and transferred money to his account.
“The police have not yet said whether the Chairperson has anything to do with the case being investigated in connection to RDC,” the lawyer said.
"He is not accused of any criminal offense and he was not summoned as a criminal suspect."
Police said Fayyaz was produced to clarify information but the information they wanted to clarify was publicly available, Mahfooz said, adding that the information had already been published in the ministers’ financial statements.
"This is just harassment. In a democracy, even if this is something I have done, it's not today that I should be summoned. With the parliamentary elections so near, this circus by summoning the Chairperson of an opposition party, is being done only to intimidate.
The alleged embezzlement of RDC funds was reported to the police more than a year ago in September 2022.
