High Court, on Wednesday, announced that it had accepted the opposition's appeal against former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom's five-year prison sentence.
Criminal Court convicted Yameen of money laundering and sentenced him to prison on November 28 and imposed a fine of USD 5 million, allotting a six-month period to settle the payment.
Opposition coalition People’s National Congress (PNC) and Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) requested the High Court to postpone the enforcement of Yameen’s jail sentence and release him on bail.
Although the High Court only revealed the acceptance of the appeal case, Dr Mohamed Jameel, a member of Yameen's legal team, stated that the courts had previously granted rights accorded by modern judiciaries and expressed confidence that the former president would be released on bail.
Yameen is detained in Maafushi Prison's Special Protection Unit (SPU). Since the former president's conviction, the opposition has been holding a series of protests calling for his release.
The state charged the former president with money laundering over a transaction of USD 1 million to his personal account in Maldives Islamic Bank by SOF Pvt Ltd. The private company is implicated in the MVR 3.3 billion embezzlement scandal of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), considered the grandest corruption case recorded in Maldivian history.
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