Criminal Court has ordered the release of Ahmed Moosa Didi, who was arrested in Sri Lanka and extradited back to Maldives earlier this year.

Mohamed, the managing director of Sealife Global, faces allegations of defrauding nearly 300 people, after collecting payments from them for apartments allocated within the first phase of a housing project.

Sealife Global was tasked with developing 3,000 housing units. It is accused of scamming a number of people, after taking the initial payment for the apartments allocated within the first phase. Cases against Sealife were filed at the police and the Civil Court, with the presidential commission on corruption and asset recovery launched an investigation into the housing scam in March.

A hearing over the matter was held on Thursday, where state prosecutors sought to remand the Sealife MD for the duration of trial over various risks including influencing witnesses. As such, they noted that nine of the witnesses in the case are former employees at Sealife and that Mohamed, with his connections to them, could attempt to influence them.

The state also noted that Mohamed is dangerous to community and a flight risk as seen previously.

Mohamed’s defence attorney Muhthaz Muhsin argued that his client has no way to leave the country given his passport had expired. He said claims of influencing witnesses is neither here nor there as most of the evidence in the trial is written evidence.

The defence further stressed that Mohamed does not deny taking payments, and that if required, he is prepared to pay the compensations.

However, the state argued that a passport can be renewed and that Mohamed is powerful and influential enough to flee the country even without one.

Mohamed said that he has no reason to flee, denying that he had ever done so. He added that the reason for his return to the country was to cooperate in the trial.

Assuring continued cooperation, the Sealife MD requested for the hearings in the trial to be aired live if no objections from the attorneys.

After listening to both sides, presiding Judge Hassan Saeed ordered to release Mohamed from custody with two stipulations; to remain in Male’ for the duration of trial and to not leave the country.

While Mohamed claims that he had never attempted to flee, he was arrested from neighboring Sri Lanka after nearly two years in hiding. He was arrested with the assistance of Interpol, and extradited back to Maldives on March 24.