Supreme Court on Thursday dropped the charges against former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb concerning the case of Maabinhuraa, an uninhabited island in Lhaviyani Atoll, on request of the state.
The apex court revealed that the appeal filed by the state, claiming that the verdict delivered by the High Court was against the principles of law and judiciary, was nullified after the Prosecutor General's (PG) Office decided to withdraw the case.
In 2016, the Criminal Court sentenced the ex-VP to eight years in prison over the embezzlement of USD 5 million (MVR 77 million) collected as the acquisition cost of leasing Maabinhuraa for tourism development.
However, the High Court overturned this verdict last May and ordered the case to be reinvestigated.
An appeal was then filed to Supreme Court, over which the apex court, in August, ordered Adeeb to be held under state custody until the conclusion of his trial.
A total of seven charges were pressed against Adeeb after reinvestigating the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) corruption scandal that cost the state over MVR 3.3 billion in embezzled funds.
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