The Criminal Court on Monday ordered Football Association of Maldives (FAM) President Bassam Adeel Jaleel's passport to be held for the duration of a trial on charges raised over the alleged misappropriation of funds sent by world football's governing body FIFA.
The court previously ordered Bassam’s passport to be held until the end of May for the purposes of a police investigation. The state later pressed charges against Bassam and sought an order to impose a travel ban on him until the conclusion of his trial.
After considering the prosecution’s motion and arguments made by Bassam’s defence, Judge Ismail Shafeeu decided to hold the passport.
Bassam was charged with embezzlement and money laundering.
According to the embezzlement charge raised against Bassam, dollars from FAM’s Bank of Ceylon account were transferred to Bassam’s personal account at the Bank of Maldives with documents submitted to list the transaction as a currency exchange.
However, there was no record of FAM receiving the funds back. The transaction was therefore concluded to have been embezzlement of FAM’s funds, the Prosecutor General’s (PG) office said.
Out of the USD 9,999 transferred to Bassam’s account, USD 1,910 was deposited to another person’s account and later transferred to the account of the Glacier Investment company owned by Bassam and his wife Maureen. These funds were then used for the company’s expenses, the PG office said in a statement released on Monday.
The funds were also used to pay rent for Bassam’s residence at the Rehendhi flats, according to the charges. The prosecution asked the court to recover USD 10,000 from Bassam to the state. The charges carry a jail sentence between five to 15 years along with a fine between USD 10,000 and USD 1 million.
Further cases of alleged corruption involving Bassam are under investigation by police.
At Monday’s hearing, the Criminal Court issued a gag order to prohibit portraying Bassam as a criminal.
An article on FAM’s corruption case was published in last month’s edition of the PG office’s “Unsuru” newsletter. The article included allegations of Bassam embezzling a large portion of USD 12 million sent from international organizations.
The judge granted the gag order after Bassam’s lawyers asked the court to prohibit the publication of such articles. No party with a legal responsibility to ensure rights should write any statement or opinion in a manner that could characterize Bassam as a criminal, the order stated.
“We inform that any such thing could be considered to be an act of contempt of court,” the court order stated.
