The state prosecutors said on Wednesday that the appeal submitted by former President Abdulla Yameen's lawyers regarding the Raa atoll Fuggiri case was not sufficient to meet the standards of an appeal.
Yameen, who is currently serving 11 years in prison after being found guilty of bribery and money laundering while leasing Vaavu atoll Aarah, has the same charges pressed against him over leasing Fuggiri. While this is ongoing, his lawyers have appealed against the earlier verdict made against Yameen by the Criminal Court.
During the hearing at the High Court, the state said that even if Yameen's side appeals the Criminal Court's decision to reject some evidence, it could not reach the appellate standard. The reason, the state said, was that the supreme court had earlier held that accepting or not accepting evidence was part of the judges' prerogative and that even if evidence was accepted, they would be allowed to speak about the evidence at a later stage.
Yameen's defence also challenged the Criminal Court's dismissal of the evidence they submitted in his defence.
Regarding the documents, the state said that Yameen's defence had not said why they were seeking the evidence from the criminal court. The prosecution said they did not know how those documents related to the current case and that it was not possible to procure documents related to another case.
Taking note of these factors, the state sought for the High Court to rule that the case did not meet the appellate standards. They also sought for the High Court to conclude that there was no reason to modify the lower court's decision even if the criteria were met.
In response, Yameen's lawyers argued that the state could not give any further reason for it other than to say that it could not meet the appeal criteria. The lawyers said that they had rejected the evidence because they were trying to prove things by presenting evidence that was not related to the case.
Responding to the state's contention that if the evidence is accepted, the decision can be made at a later stage, Yameen's lawyers said that the fact that the opportunity existed later was not a reason to accept the evidence now.
His lawyers said they had outlined why they wished to retrieve some of the documents from the Criminal Court. Handing the documents back is something the state has to do, they said.
If no further matters require clarification in this case, the next step is for the verdict to be passed.
The High Court bench hearing the case includes Justice Hassan Shafiu, Justice Mohamed Faisal, and Justice Dheebanaz Fahmy. The bench was headed by Justice Shafiu.
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