Naifaru MP Ahmed Shiyam, on Wednesday, submitted a resolution to the parliament demanding the withdrawal of money laundering charges against former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.
The resolution lodged by Shiyam, a lawmaker of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM), presents several arguments for the annulment of Yameen's charges and revision of the case by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
While the Criminal Court ordered the former president's detainment after prosecutor Aishath Mohamed claimed that he had attempted to use bribery to influence witnesses, the resolution denounced the ruling as being politically motivated, unconstitutional and unjust.
Yameen is to remain in Maafushi Prison until the investigation and court proceedings conclude.
Moreover, the resolution guaranteed that Yameen had not made any attempt to conceal evidence and stated that the actions of the Prosecutor General’s Office were politically influenced.
The resolution highlighted the issue that no investigations were being conducted regarding the businesses and the other 154 individuals who were revealed to have connections to the MMPRC scandal by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)’s recently released report.
Additionally, the resolution stated that detaining Yameen over evidence tampering amounted to the defamation of a politician who garnered 96,000 votes in the last presidential election which could be considered as suppressing opposition political activities. Subsequently, the resolution described the allegations against Yameen as a heinous crime to limit his public support.
The resolution concluded that the politically motivated detention of the only opposition leader operating in Maldives was an uncivilised act in violation of democratic values intended to influence the results of the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The PG Office charged Yameen for laundering and deriving a profit from the USD 1 million deposited by SOF Pvt Ltd to his Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) account. SOF was connected to the MVR 1.3 billion embezzlement case of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).
According to the resolution, no government institute verified that SOF had embezzled any state-owned funds.
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