Majlis rejects emergency motion over alleged audio clips leaked online
Judicial Service Commission is investigating the case
The motion was submitted by Maduvvari constituency MP Adam Shareef at Tuesday’s sitting
An emergency motion submitted regarding the alleged leaked audio recordings of three Criminal Court judges, has been rejected by the People’s Majlis.
The motion was submitted by Maduvvari constituency MP Adam Shareef at Tuesday’s sitting, who said that the leaked recordings prove that former President Abdulla Yameen’s five-year jail sentence on a money laundering conviction was unjust.
Describing it as a “political game”, the lawmaker claimed that the audios prove that Yameen was jailed after threatening and bribing the five-judges’ bench that presided over his 2019 trial.
Shareef also noted that one of the judges has since been promoted, adding that another is heard complaining about not getting the promotion he was promised in the leaked audios.
The Maduvvari MP filed the motion under Article 179 of the parliamentary regulations.
20 lawmakers voted to reject the motion at Tuesday’s sitting, while seven wanted to accept it. Five of those present at the sitting did not vote.
While the Majlis has rejected the emergency motion, the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has launched an investigation into the matter.
The commission has questioned all three judges whose alleged audio recordings leaked online on Sunday, as well as the remaining two in the five-judges bench.
All five deny the allegations, as well as having such a conversation.
Further, while JSC has asked the police conduct an audio analysis to determine authenticity, the three judges in question have agreed to provide voice samples for the investigation.
Former President Yameen was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison in November 2019, for money laundering. He was found guilty of laundering USD one million through state-owned Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) via a private company, SoF, during his presidential tenure.
While the conviction has been appealed at the Supreme Court, the audio recordings were leaked after the court scheduled a hearing in the case.
In one of the recordings, a voice reported to be Judge Hussain Faiz Rashaad indicates that the bench that presided over Yameen's trial "was held hostage" as well as that support for the former president has been growing as he remains in jail unjustly. The man also admits to being coerced to issue the verdict in the case.
