JSC moves to disbar Judge Ismail Rasheed for throwing out ex-VP Adeeb corruption charges

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) is moving to disbar Criminal Court Judge Ismail Rasheed following allegations of misconduct in having charges of corruption raised against former Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb thrown out of court, with the case against him now submiutted to the People's Majlis Judiciary Committee.

The case against Judge Ismail Rasheed was forwarded to the Judiciary Committee on Monday. The JSC's investigation detailed that Judge Ismail Rasheed had drafted an order to have seven charges raised against Ahmed Adeeb in the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations (MMPRC) corruption case thrown out of court, before the charges were formally raised against him.

The seven charges that were raised against Adeeb were; two cases of involvement in corruption, two cases of using his position to gain undue benefits, two charges of money-laundering as well as an abuse of power charge. Adeeb is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after having plead guilty to charges against him in a retrial.

The JSC had preciously suspended Judge Ismail Rasheed in July 2020 under Article 25 of the Judicial Service Commission Act, following his rejection of charges raised against Ahmed Adeeb. Judge Ismail Rasheed has since returned to work at court following the end of his suspension.

The charges against the former VP were rejected on the grounds that a plea deal signed between him and the stated ‘was entered wrongfully’, and that former Prosecutor General Aishath Bisham had also acted outside of the law in relation to the plea deal..

However, PG Shameem had denied this at the time, and stressed that Adeeb had not made such a claim at any point in the trial, and had submitted a case against Judge Ismail Rasheed at the JSC . The allegations of misconduct had been the reason Judge Ismail Rasheed was placed under suspension in July 2020.

The JSC has concluded that Judge Ismail Rasheed's order to reject charges raised against Adeeb had been in blatant violation of Section 13 of the Penal Code. The JSC noted that while a hearing for the case had been conducted on 14 July 2020, Judge Ismail Rasheed had crafted the order to throw out charges raised against Adeeb well before that date.

JSC reveled Judge Ismail Rasheed had saved a document on a USB drive titled "trip finale v2" detailing the order to have corruption charges against ex-VP Adeeb thrown out of court. The JSC stated that Judge Ismail Rasheed's decision to pre-save such a document titled as so escaped logic, and that the the labeling of the document as such was an exceptional factor that needed to be considered. The JSC also questioned Criminal Court Judge Ismail Rasheed's motives in the case, as the document had been saved before charges had been formally raised against Adeeb at court.

The JSC notes that while charges had been raised against Adeeb after an independent investigation, Judge Ismail Rasheed's move to have the charges thrown out of court were grounds to have him disbarred for misconduct.

The only way a sitting Judge can be disbarred is after the JSC forwards the case against them to a parliamentary vote, and the current 19th People's Majlis is the first parliament to have removed a judge through this mechanism.