Supreme Court to hear Shamaan's remand appeal

Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal submitted by former Immigration Controller Mohamed Shamaan Waheed against the Criminal Court's decision to remand him until the end of his trial.

This decision comes after a bench of Supreme Court judges overturned the decision by the Court’s Registrar, who had rejected the appeal on the grounds that it did not cite any legally valid arguments showing that the High Court’s decision violated legal or judicial procedures.

Shamaan’s lawyer had appealed to the Supreme Court after the High Court upheld the Criminal Court’s remand order. The bench reviewed the appeal and concluded that it raised legally arguable issues, warranting a full hearing. Therefore, the Registrar’s decision has been nullified, and the case will proceed.

Shamaan, who was previously dismissed from his role as Immigration Controller, is currently facing charges of allegedly accepting money from an expatriate in exchange for releasing the individual from custody.

Prosecutor General's Office said that three separate charges are being raised against Shamman. The first is of being involved in extortion, which carries a prison sentence of three years, two months and two days.

The second charge is of abuse of official position. This carries a prison sentence of one year, seven months and six days.

The third charge is of money laundering, with a prison sentence of between 5 and 15 years, and a fine of up to MVR 1 million.

The prosecution also calls for the MVR 250,000 of the funds Shamman is said to have laundered, which was seized from his residence, to be seized by the State. In addition to this, the State calls for the remaining MVR 150,000 from the total MVR 400,000 Shamman is said to have kept to be seized by the State from the funds seized by the Police from his residence.

The prosecution further appeals for compensation to be taken for the funds taken by Shamman from the expatriate.

Prosecutor General's Office said that these charges are being pressed against Shamman for instructing the release of the expatriate taken into detention by Maldives Immigration's Risk Section and taking the MVR 500,000 that was seized from the expatriate on his detention.

Prosecutor General's Office said that these charges are being pressed against Shamman for instructing the release of the expatriate taken into detention by Maldives Immigration's Risk Section and taking the MVR 500,000 that was seized from the expatriate on his detention.

PG Office said that the money was taken from the expatriate after threatening to take further action against him if he failed to leave the country.

The charges against Shamman further state that on the day he took these funds from the expatriate, he had deposited MVR 149,491.46 to Bank of Maldives and MVR 110,345.59 to another loan account to repay two student loans.