The High Court has upheld the Civil Court’s refusal to issue an injunction on the airport development project given to a company operated by Ahmed Siyam, a coalition partner to the government.
The appeal was filed by Millennium Capital Investment on the grounds that the contract initially given to it had been terminated unlawfully. Millennium had also sought to halt the airport development with the Civil Court, which had ruled that the company was in breach of the contract.
The High Court ruling on Tuesday states that Millennium had failed to adequately conduct the development as per its contract with the state. The ruling also states that while the company’s claim seeks to prevent damages to Millennium, if an injunction to halt the project is issued it would cause irretrievable damage to the leaser, the state.
The contract given to Millennium was terminated in February last year, after shareholder Hamid Ismail was arrested on suspicion of conspiring with his relative, former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb, to assassinate President Abdulla Yameen.
On February 8th, President Yameen had said that Hamid’s potential complicity in the act is indicative of the company’s incapability to conduct the airport development. He said this while speaking at Siyam’s native island of Kudafari in Noonu atoll.
The project is worth USD 17 million, roughly MVR 262 million, and the government has made the decision to be the guarantor for a loan of MVR 3 billion that Siyam’s company is to withdraw in order to fund the project. However, the government is yet to sign off on the loan.
