Civil Court rules no proven debt owed by Nazim to Premier Chambers

After five years, the Civil Court has ruled that the MVR 1.3 million Premier Chambers claims is owed by former Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim for services rendered during his arrest during the administration of former President Abdulla Yameen is not proven debt.

Nazim, also the current MP for North Maafannu, was arrested on February 10, 2015 on allegations that a weapon of war was found in his room at his then residence, G. Enif-ge.

He received a prison sentence of 11 years in the case on March 27, 2015, a ruling which was appealed by lawyers Shaheen Hameed, Maumoon Hameed and Hassan Maaz Shareef from Premier Chambers. However, Nazim dismissed the law firm while the case was at High Court.

When the High Court upheld the sentence in 2016, the ruling was appealed at the Supreme Court, which rejected the case. However, once Yameen's administration concluded, Supreme Court reviewed the case on December 13, 2018 and cancelled the prison sentence.

In March 2020, Premier Chambers went to court claiming Nazim owed them MVR 977,353 for legal services and MVR 1.3 million including fines. The case was first heard through the Dispute Resolution stage at the Civil Court. After this, when the case was under review after trial on September 6, 2021, Supreme Court dissolved some sections at the Civil Court, which caused the case to be forwarded to another section. When the Judge who then oversaw the case retired, the case was once again transferred to another section on May 22, 2023.

Nazim claimed in court that that he had not requested Premier Chambers to appeal the Criminal Court ruling against him. His lawyers said that due to this, Premier Chambers does not have the right to file this claim.

They claimed that Premier Chambers had not provided legal representation on Nazim's request, and that there is no agreement on fees for such services.

The court noted that there are four invoices sent by Premier Chambers to Nazim. These are an invoice sent seeking payment of MVR 977,353.13 for services extended towards appealing the ruling against Nazim, and three invoices instructing payment plus fines for failure to settle the payment.

Premier Chambers also submitted to court a series of emails where the legal fees were stated, and claimed it was done with the knowledge of Nazim and his family. The email sent by Premier Chambers asked Nazim to confirm via email if the legal fees quoted were acceptable. However, the Court said that the Premier Chambers' email was sent by a third party, and that there is no proof that the third party has the legal right to represent Nazim.

While Nazim has sent a letter in response to Premier Chambers' invoice, the letter stated that the price was quoted by Premier Chambers and does not have Nazim's approval, and further stated that Nazim cannot make the payment.

The Court's ruling stated that in light of this, there is no contract regarding cost of services which was agreed upon by both parties.

Hence, Judge Fayyaz Shathir ruled that the claimed payment is not a proven debt.