The Judges Association of Maldives (JAM) on Wednesday, raised concern over allegations levied against Supreme Court Judge Ali Rasheed by People's National Congress (PNC)'s Vice President Ibrahim Shujau.
According to JAM, an article published on online news 'DhiDaily', reported that Shujau, during a press conference held by PNC on November 22, insinuated that Judge Ali Rasheed may have to face life imprisonment.
Judge Rasheed was the presiding judge of the Criminal Court at the time when it issued a verdict against former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom. The ruling sought to imprison Yameen on money laundering charges linked to the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC)'s embezzlement scandal, which resulted in a potential loss of MVR 4 billion in state revenue.
Following the conclusion of the former president's case, Rasheed was then appointed as a Supreme Court justice.
The state charged former President Yameen over a transaction of USD 1 million to his account in Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) by SOF Pvt Ltd -- a company implicated in the MMPRC embezzlement scandal, considered the largest corruption case recorded in Maldivian history.
While Yameen had agreed to transfer the USD 1 million to a joint escrow account at Bank of Maldives (BML), which was opened with Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), it later surfaced that the money Yameen transferred to the account was not the USD 1 million he received from SOF. The funds from SOF were instead deposited in a general investment account at MIB.
Additional money laundering charges have been raised against the jailed president as he approaches the one-year mark of imprisonment, following Criminal Court's verdict announced on November 28, 2019.
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