The High Court’s ruling on the inadmissibility of new evidence submitted to the Criminal Court to prove corruption charges against former President Abdulla Yameen has been appealed at the Supreme Court.
Yameen had been accused of accepting a bribe to lease Vaavu Aarah for resort development. Defence witnesses were called to show that the alleged bribe money in Yameen’s account came from a dollar transaction with former MP Yoosuf Naeem.
The state submitted new evidence to the Criminal Court to negate the testimony of defence witnesses. The lower court accepted the evidence. But the High Court deemed the new evidence to be inadmissible when it ordered a retrial
The High Court’s decision for the Criminal Court to hear the case again after setting aside that evidence was in conflict with Supreme Court precedents, said the Prosecutor General’s (PG) office, which represents the state.
As the Criminal Court’s procedure for accepting the evidence could be corrected during the retrial, the High Court’s order has been appealed at the Supreme Court, the PG office said.
Yameen, who held the presidential ticket of the Progressive Party of Maldives-People's National Congress (PPM-PNC) coalition at the time, was sentenced to 11 years in prison with a USD 5 million fine by the Criminal Court on December 25, 2022. The verdict was appealed in March last year. The appeal started in June 2023. Hearings concluded on November 21, 2023.
Yameen was freed last April. Yameen had been barred from contesting in last year’s presidential election due to the conviction.
Yameen was also charged with bribery and money laundering over alleged corruption in the lease of Raa Fuggiri. The case remains stalled at the Criminal Court after the trial started. The last hearing took place in August last year.
Yameen had also been handed a prison sentence previously over the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) corruption scandal that occurred during his government. A five-year sentence handed down by the lower court over alleged corruption in the lease of Gaaf Alif Vodamulla was upheld by the High Court. But the Supreme Court ruled that Yameen was not guilty because it could not be established that the money deposited to his account had been stolen from state coffers.
