Criminal Court, on Monday night, sentenced former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb to 20 years in prison with a MVR 2 million fine, over his involvement in the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) scandal.
Adeeb entered a confessional agreement with the state to reduce his sentence, and assented to confess to all seven charges pressed against him over graft, which is believed to have cost the state MVR 4 billion in lost revenue.
The state charged Adeeb, who was serving as the Minister of Tourism at the time, with two counts of embezzlement, two counts of money laundering, as well as exerting influence for illicit gains, exerting influence to earn illicit gains for another party, and abusing his official position.
Under the confessional agreement between Adeeb and the state, the ex-VP faced four years and nine months of jail time for the first count of embezzlement while the second count of embezzlement carried a two-year and four-month sentence.
While his charge for exerting influence for illicit gains for another party resulted in a six-month sentence, Adeeb was incarcerated for another three months for abusing his official position. He also faced an additional month and 15 days in prison for exerting influence to earn illicit gains.
The two counts of money laundering carried sentences of five years and 11 months in addition to a fine of MVR 1 million each.
Although he was sentence to 20 years, he will serve 19 years in jail as the duration he was held under state custody over the ongoing trial was reduced from his sentence.
Adeeb was formerly sentenced to 33 years in prison over three different cases, but the High Court and Supreme Court had later overturned the sentences.
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