The release of Managing Director of Sealife Global, Ahmed Moosa Mohamed has been appealed.

The Prosecutor General’s Office (PG Office) appealed the case at the High Court on March 21.

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 24 March 2021. Interpol confirmed Mohamed’s arrest from neighboring Sri Lanka, to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) on 22 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 20 October 2021. 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 proposed his two siblings, younger sister Afeefa Moosa and elder sister Mariyam Naeema as his guarantors.

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.

On 16 November 2021, the High Court overturned the Criminal Court’s decision to release Mohamed on bail.

As such, the High Court revealed that Mohamed is deemed a flight risk and ordered for his re-arrest.

Speaking at High Court in connection to the case, the state attorneys had revealed that Mohamed has a record of attempting to flee and that he had been in hiding in the international arena as well.

During the latest hearing held on 21 March 2022, the state prosecutors had requested for the court to rule that no changes may be brought to the decision to keep Mohamed remanded pending sentencing.

The state requested for this as he is still deemed a flight risk.

The defendant however, stressed that the court could enforce measures to ensure he does not flee the trial. As such, he noted that his passport has been withheld and assured that he would fully cooperate with all conditions presented by the state to ensure he does not flee the trial.

Considering all the points noted by both the defendant and the state, the presiding judge, Hassan Saeed revealed that there is room to bring changes to his remand after ensuring measures are enforced to make sure he does not flee the trial.

Some of these measures include ensuring he attends all court hearings, disallowing him to depart from the capital without the court’s approval, disallowing him from contacting those who were involved in the scam including potential witnesses who could give testimonies, banning him from holding meetings and even disallowing him from applying for a new passport without the court’s approval.