Youth Minister Ahmed Mahloof accuses Prosecutor General Office (PGO) of mishandling his case on corruption charges and says he is reconsidering his previous statement to resign from his post if the state decided to press charges against him for his involvement.
The parliament released a list of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporations (MMPRC) corruption beneficiaries on May 12. Mahloof and several high profile current and former state officials were on the list but few of them have been sent to prosecution including Mahloof.
Mahloof had expressed his dissatisfaction with how the case was being handled on Twitter after an online news outlet had reported that his case had been handed to two senior officials of PGO Abdulla Rabiu and Mahmood Saleem. This case was previously being investigated by a committee of state prosecutors from the PGO.
He said he has noticed that the sate was handling his case poorly and he did not want to make the proceedings easier on them.
"I had previously decided to resign depending on PGO's decision. Since they are handling this case so poorly, I will think more on it before I decide to resign even if they decide to press charges," Mahloof said.
Mahloof accused that politically powerful people had gotten involved in this case. He also said if charges were pressed against him, it would become apparent this was being pursed by someone with a personal vendetta against him.
He said he still has chatlogs from a lawyer that he received two years ago. He stated that the Maldivian authorities had gotten a Sri Lankan citizen's statement for this case in a way that conflicts with both Maldivian and Sri Lankan laws. This case was being investigated by the Sri Lankan authorities, he said.
Mahloof pointed out that PG Hussain Shameem had said they would make a decision on whether or not to prosecute him within six days in a previous press conference but 60 days had passed since them. He said his case was handed over to another party because the committee investigating MMPRC Corruption cases had decided they would be unable to press charges against him.
"When the committee decided they would be unable to press charges, they took the case and handed it someone else," Mahloof said.
He said he would formally inform President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of this decision and it would be the President that makes the decision to remove him from his position.
Mahloof was the only Minister on the list released by the Parliament. Other high ranking government officials were also on this list.
It was later released that Mahloof had received USD 33,000 while he had served as a parliament member in the previous term. Mahloof denies connection to the MMPRC Corruption and has stated that he had obtained that money through legal means, via Dollar exchange.
Mahloof said he was unaware the money he had received had any connection to the MMPRC Corruption. Anti Corruption Commission had investigated this case on his request and stated that he had no dishonest involvement in this.
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