High Court has overturned Criminal Court's verdict sentencing former President Abdulla Yameen to 11 years in prison on charges of money laundering and bribery.
High Court has also overturned Criminal Court's verdict sentencing former President Abdulla Yameen to 7 years in prison over money laundering charges, and ordered a retrial.
The High Court ordered earlier today that a retrial be granted to Yameen on the charges of accepting bribes in the lease of Vaavu atoll Aarah.
With both these rulings, the High Court has now freed him of the entire 11 years in prison on charges of money laundering and bribery.
Delivering the ruling on the appeal case regarding the money laundering case, the High Court three judge bench stated that the money laundering charges against Yameen stated that he had laundered the funds received via bribery. Hence, in the instance the bribery charges against Yameen are not proved, there are no grounds to prove the money laundering charges either.
The current ruling issued by the three judge bench states that the lower court acted wrongfully in the submission of pre-trial submissions, as a result infringing upon Yameen's rights.
The ruling also said the Criminal Court's decision to accept new evidence against Yameen's defence evidence was also wrongful. It said that such evidence is only admissible under exceptional circumstances, and that the Criminal Court had proceeded in accepting this evidence without providing justifiable reasons for it. Furthermore, the ruling noted that Yameen's legal representatives had not been granted the opportunity to address it before admission was allowed.
Regarding the Criminal Court's decision that Yameen opting to exercise his right to silence during the investigation could be used against him, the High Court stated that there is no legal issue arising in this act. They went on to state that the lower court had also acted against the law in considering that Yameen was aware that the money was wrongfully obtained because MMPRC funds were included in Yameen's financial statement.
Hence, the High Court has overturned the Criminal Court's earlier verdict, ordering a retrial.
The High Court has also revoked the prison sentence and ordered a retrial today for former MP for Felidhoo constituency Yoosuf Naeem, who had also been sentenced to a three year prison sentence for bribery in the same Aarah case.
The hearing was presided over by Judge Mohamed Saleem with Judge Hassan Shafeeu and Judge Huzaifa Ahmed also on the bench.
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