High Court rejects appeal over Ammaty’s release

The High Court has rejected the appeal filed by the state, over the decision to release the Managing Director of Sealife Global, Ahmed Moosa Mohamed (Ammaty).

Mohamed, native to Thinadhoo island in Vaavu atoll, is facing allegations of defrauding nearly 300 people after collecting payments from them for apartments allocated within the first phase of a housing project.

During the last hearing held on 20 March 2022, the state prosecutors requested the court to rule that no changes may be brought to the decision to keep Mohamed in remand pending sentencing, as he is still deemed a flight risk.

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.

However, the defendant stressed that the court could enforce measures to ensure he does not flee from trial. Assuring that he would fully cooperate with all conditions presented by the state to ensure he does not flee, he noted that his passport has been withheld .

The presiding judge, Hassan Saeed revealed that there is room to bring changes to his remand order, after ensuring measures are enforced to make sure he does not flee, and the Criminal Court granted Mohamed conditional release.

The Prosecutor General’s Office appealed the release of Mohamed at the High Court.

The High Court on Wednesday rejected the appeal by the PG Office, stating that the appeal was filed after the 48-hour window closed. During the hearing Judge Abdulla Hameed, one of the three Judges who were on the bench stated that Criminal Court made the order at 04:00pm, March 20, meaning that the 48-hour window will close at 03:59pm March 21. He stated that the PG Office filed the appeal on March 23, 12:12pm, hence, the Court cannot accept the filed appeal.

The project between the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) and Sealife Global was announced back in 2014. This was a five-year project and was a joint venture between Sealife Global and two Dubai firms.

Sealife was tasked with developing 3,000 housing units in Hulhumalé. They had earlier announced several dates 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 arose in launching the project, without reimbursing the tenants, in turn violating agreements made with locals to sell the planned properties.

Interpol confirmed Mohamed’s arrest from neighboring Sri Lanka, to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) on 22 February 2021 in connection with the scam, and was extradited to the Maldives on 24 March 2021.