The High Court rejected the appeal of the four children of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom to overturn the Civil Court's prior ruling against them, over the appellant's failure to attend court hearings.
The representative of Ghassan Maumoon, who had filed the case on behalf of the siblings, had failed to attend hearings scheduled for the previous week.
The lawsuit filed at Civil Court by Rasheed Carpentry and Construction (RCC) Company states that the four siblings have not made the payment for the development of a building located in the capital city of Male'. It has been almost five years since RCC concluded work on the building, which is registered under the name of Dhunya, Yumna, Faris and Ghassan Maumoon.
The siblings previously denied RCC's accusations, declaring they did not owe the company any retention fee since the building was of considerably low quality.
Despite the High Court's rejection of the appeal, the case can be resubmitted within the next 15 days as current regulations allow this for situations in which the appellant fails to attend to a hearing.
A confidant of the Gayoom family stated that efforts to refile for an appeal were already underway.
While the constitution bars candidates from running in parliamentary elections while debt has been proven against them, Ghassan and Faris have announced plans to contest for parliament in April. Certain lawyers have stated that the siblings can still contest in the elections since the appeal process has not yet concluded.
If a case is appealed to a higher court, the sentencing is put on hold until the appeal process concludes. As per this rule, the implementation of the sentence is on hold for the case of Maumoon’s children.
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