Two more hearings have been scheduled for January in the money laundering trial of Abdulla Yameen, former president of Maldives over the leasing of Aarah island in Vaavu atoll to a foreign party for resort development.

The trial began on January 2 and the hearing for Yoosuf Naeem, who also faces charges in connection to the case, proceeded alongside Yameen’s hearing.

Judge Ahmed Shakeel is presiding over the trial.

During the first hearing, the presiding judge inquired if the defendants had been provided their rights, to which Yameen’s legal team responded by seeking additional time as some of the documents linked to the case were received on the day of the hearing. The additional time has been sought to ensure all of the documents have been procured and to run through them.

Further, Noonu atoll Velidhoo native Naseem had stressed on his need for legal representation, with which the presiding judge granted him 10 days to appoint an attorney.

The rights granted to the defendants under the Criminal Procedure code were detailed by Judge Shakeel, who requested the defendants to ensure they acquire all of the documents linked to the case for the next hearing, as it is also a right of the defendant.

With this, two additional hearings were scheduled for the ongoing month during which the bench will ensure the defendants have been provided their rights and the charges raised against them are detailed.

The hearings will be held at 9:30am on January 13 and January 27.

Maldives Police Service (MPS) concluded investigations into the Aarah sale case on 30 April 2021, and had even forwarded the case for prosecution.

The Prosecutor General’s Office forwarded the case to court on 24 November 2021.

PG Office revealed that Yameen is accused of misusing his official authority to launder USD one million in connection to the lease of Aarah, to Naeem for resort development; the latter has also been charged.

Two counts of money laundering charges have been raised against Yameen while Naeem, a former parliamentarian, faces one charge.

Yameen is charged under Article 53 (a), 5(a) (2) in reference to (3), as well as under Article 53(b), (6) and (7) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act, for laundering money. The second charge comes under Section 510 of the Penal Code, for accepting bribes.

Naeem is charged under Section 510 of the Maldives Penal Code, for bribery.

The island near V. Thinadhoo, used as a picnic island, was initially awarded to a local company in which former leader of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Ahmed Thasmeen Ali has a share. The island was sold off to former MP for Felidhoo constituency, Naeem during September 2015. Naeem is believed to have been a close ally of the former president.

He is to have sold the island to a foreign company later, the deal through which Yameen pocketed the USD one million.

Yameen was questioned by the Maldives Police Service (MPS) in connection to the case, back in July.

This was revealed by Mohamed Jameel Ahmed, one of the lawyers on the former president’s legal representation team. Confirming that his client was summoned in regards to a case of which investigations had earlier concluded, he said that the case 'has been reopened once more'.

Jameel said that his client was innocent and that the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) case is not linked to him in any way.

Jameel, who was Yameen's running mate in 2013 and later impeached, indicated that Yameen's innocence's can be proven from parliament who he noted has a list of "true suspects" in the MMPRC case. He noted that this list has been shared with the asset recovery commission as well.

The incarcerated ex-president’s legal team accused the government of politically torturing him through a plot.

Yameen was sentenced to five years in prison on 28 November 2019, after being found guilty of laundering USD one million through state-owned MMPRC via a private company, SoF, during his presidential tenure. He was also slapped with a fine totaling USD five million, to be settled within six months.

The ex-president was transferred to house arrest in April 2021, in the middle of Ramadan 1442 after receiving the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine and at a time reports were confirmed that officers at the Maafushi Prison tested positive for the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The Supreme Court overturned the five-year prison sentence slapped on the former president, in late November 2021. However, he was prohibited from traveling overseas. Police sought an order to ban the recently freed ex-president from traveling out of the Maldives, at the Criminal Court citing ongoing trials and investigations. The ban expired within seven days of his release.

Yameen is being tried for fresh new charges linked to the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) scandal. As such, he faced charges of bribery and money laundering in connection to the leasing of Fuggiri island in Raa atoll. He was charged in connection to the case during June 2020. He faces five charges in total, over the pending trials.