Bassam sentenced to four years in jail

The Criminal Court has just sentenced former Football Association of Maldives (FAM) President Bassam Adeel Jaleel to four years in jail after he was convicted of fraud and money laundering.

Bassam is alleged to have transferred USD 10,000 (MVR 154,000) from funds FIFA had deposited to FAM's account in 2018 to his own account after submitting documents to the bank. As the amount was deposited after deducting bank charges, USD 9,999 was deposited to Bassam's account. 

Presiding Judge Ismail Shafeeu stated that it is clear the funds were deposited into Bassam's account from the withdrawal documents and from his own statements.

And even though Bassam said the funds were the allowance that he was to receive in his capacity as FAM President, the fact that FAM had allocated the President's allowance funds a few days before the supposed allowance went to his account means the USD 9,999 cannot be viewed as an allowance, said Judge Shafeeu.

As per Judge Shafeeu, since Dollar sale transactions had occurred between him and FAM as per the evidence, it is known that FAM had not received the MVR equivalent. Judge Shafeeu stated that since the Dollars were used for personal reasons as the evidence showed, the crime of fraud can and has been proven against Bassam.

Once the crime had been proven, discussions regarding his sentence took place. The Prosecution stated that even though the law states that the punishment for such a crime is one year and 7 months of jail time, they pushed to increase the punishment, with a jail time of four years. The Prosecution's reason for this is because he committed the crime while he was the President of the FAM.

However, Bassam's defense lawyer argued that his sentence should be lower than what the law states, due to him having no prior criminal record. When Judge Shafeeu gave Bassam the chance to voice his opinion about his punishment, he said that he had nothing to say on the matter.

While the sentencing commenced, Judge Shafeeu stated that in the days the funds were allocated to his account, there were transactions where he had bought costly products from Singapore, and that he still had not paid back the sum until now.

Judge Shafeeu decided to honor the Prosecution's request as Bassam had made use of funds meant for the promotion of Maldivian football for personal reasons while he held the seat of FAM President.

With that, Judge Shafeeu sentenced Bassam to the highest punishment of four years in jail.

Even though the Prosecution had presented charges of money laundering against Bassam, the sentence for the crime hadn't been determined today. The Prosecution has accused Bassam with other charges as well concerning FAM funds, with the trials for these charges being held separately.