Housing scam trial will be hindered if Sealife MD escapes: state
The High Court has appealed the Criminal Court verdict
Interpol issued a red notice to locate Ahmed Moosa Mohamed back in 2019
A hearing in connection to the appeal made by the state in connection to the Criminal Court’s decision to release the Managing Director of Sealife Global who is being charged over the Sealife housing scam, on bail has been held.
The hearing was held at the High Court on Thursday, during which state prosecutors stressed that Mohamed is someone who has a record of attempting to flee and that he was also someone who went into hiding in the international arena.
According to online news outlet ‘Sun’, although a stay order on Mohamed’s passport is in effect, the state attorney had stressed that there are threats that he may escape “through the back door”.
Mohamed, native to Thinadhoo island in Vaavu atoll, who faces allegations of defrauding nearly 300 people after collecting payments from them for apartments allocated within the first phase of a housing project, was extradited to the Maldives on March 24. Interpol confirmed Mohamed’s arrest from neighboring Sri Lanka, to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) during February 2021 in connection to the scam.
The initial agreement between the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and the government was to reimburse the nearly 300 tenants who had paid for apartments in 3,000 housing units. Most of the tenants had given both the booking fee as well as the down payment.
The five-year project between the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and Sealife Global was announced back in 2014 and is a joint venture between the company and two Dubai firms. Under the agreement, Sealife was tasked with developing 3,000 housing units in Hulhumalé, they had earlier announced several dates on when the flats would be completed, however, they failed to start any work on the construction of these flats.
Mohamed fled the country after issues in launching the project, without reimbursing the tenants, in turn violating agreements made with locals to sell properties being constructed.
Maldivian police pursued an Interpol red notice to locate Mohamed during April 2019. The accused is a close associate of now incarcerated former President Abdulla Yameen and was believed to be living in Sri Lanka when the red notice accusing him of defraud and forgery, was out in late April 2019.
During earlier hearings, the 42 charges raised on the defendant were heard. Mohamed denied all charges against him and requested for time to detail his responses to the allegations as well as to submit evidence to back his claims.
Mohamed was granted his request to be released on bail by the Criminal Court on October 20. The decision to grant Mohamed release on bail was issued by Judge Hassan Saeed, who was also the judge who ruled to grant bail for former Tourism Minister Ali Waheed whose guarantor was signed as Assad Ali.
Mohamed had requested release on bail earlier, with the state attorney revealing that those who request the rights of release on bail are required to base it on acceptable legal grounds. During Wednesday’s hearing, the state prosecutors had requested the presiding judge to deny the defendant’s request on bail release. The judge, however, revealed that the proposals for guarantors meet the conditions.
Mohamed proposed his two siblings, younger sister Afeefa Moosa and elder sister Mariyam Naeema as his guarantors, who were present during Wednesday’s hearing.
Public Prosecutor at the Prosecutor General’s Office announced the decision to head to the High Court with the decision, sometime next week. This comes at a time the Criminal Court judge presiding over the case had revealed that the prosecution has the right to appeal the decision to grant Mohamed’s release on bail.
While Naeema revealed that she hadn’t known Mohamed “was in hiding”, the state prosecutors questioned how someone who didn’t know the history of the accused, can sign on as a guarantor for his bail release.
It is to be noted that the guarantors will be held responsible if Mohamed violates his bail release. The bail conditions include Mohamed not being allowed to leave Malé City and cooperating in attending hearings as the trial is still ongoing.
In Twitter post shortly after, PG Hussain Shameem revealed that there are specific rules on allocating guarantors as the law states. With this being said, he wrote that the PG Office will need to head to the High Court since the legal mandate has been violated.
