The Edition
facebook icon twitter icon instagram icon linkedin icon

Latest

Yameen asked the court not to accept evidences against him

Lamya Abdulla
24 August 2021, MVT 10:03
(FILE) Photo taken on August 3 as Yameen was being escorted from the Presidential Commission: Yameen is currently serving a five year jail sentence -- Photo: Ahmed Awshan Ilyas/ Mihaaru
Lamya Abdulla
24 August 2021, MVT 10:03

Former President Abdulla Yameen requests the court not to accept the evidences submitted against him by the state regarding the leasing of Raa Fuggiri. This is one of the cases Yameen is being investigated for his role in the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) Corruption.

Yameen is being prosecuted for accepting a bribe of MVR 1.1 million while leasing the island and laundering the money.

Criminal Court had offered both parties the opportunity to submit evidences regarding this case prior to the hearings. Including oral and documentary evidences, the state had submitted a total of 86 evidences in this case.

The hearing held on Sunday was to give both parties the opportunity to discuss the evidences previously submitted before the trial starts. The state prosecutors had one request; for the court to issue an order stating to protect the CD holding the annex of the mobile forensic report and the annex containing the computer forensic report.

Senior Public Prosecutor Aishath Mohamed said both the annexes contained private information of a significant number of people. These included information used for ongoing investigations and if released to the public may lead to obstacles in conducting said investigations. It would be breaching the rights of the people who’s personal details were included in the annexes, she noted.

Yameen’s defendants objected this request on the basis that it had no constitutional grounds. His legal representative lawyer Abdulla Shiyaz said any evidences submitted to prove Yameen’ guilt has to be made available for them as well.

Shiyaz further said the reasons outlined in the Criminal Procedure does not include the reasons the state prosecutor had cited and therefore was not applicable here.

Adeeb and Ziyath are liars, other evidences are not applicable: Defence

Defence put forward four motions regarding the evidences submitted. One of them was to not accept the oral evidences submitted against Yameen.

The defence noted that Abdulla Ziyath and Ahmed Adeeb were "machines" planted by the state against Yameeen. Shiyaz noted that they had been proven to be dishonest in the past, their word cannot be considered as true.

The state persecutors rebutted due to the nature of the case, the witnesses available were also people that had participated in these crimes. They also said it is not out of the norm for people that had pleaded guilty on such cases to later be submit witness statements detailing how the crime was committed.

The state also said the documentary evidence they have submitted will support the statements of the witnesses.

Other evidences the state submitted that the defence requested to not be accepted include the other witnesses and documentary evidences such as letters, bank documents, and agreements. Defence had stated these were not connected to the case being investigated.

The state defended their submissions and said there was no constitutional reason to not accept the evidences submitted.

Other motions

The defence had made the other motions regarding this case. They had said since the state had added three more evidences it should be investigated separately. Yameen’s defence had also complained that the state had not sent him amended documents regarding the charges pressed against him.

Lastly, they requested for all the documents submitted for this trial to be made available for the defence so they can build a defence. The state prosecutors objected to this as some of the documents they had submitted to this were to be classified.

Yameen already has a five year jail sentence for laundering over USD 1 million of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) Corruption. However when COVID-19 cases surged in Maldives in late April, Yameen was transferred to house arrest in late May.

He is additionally being investigated for similar involvement in the leasing of Vaavu Aarah.

Share this story

Related Stories

Discuss

MORE ON NEWS