Judiciary Committee approves PG Shameem’s dismissal

The People’s Majlis Judiciary Committee has approved the dismissal of Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem.

Parliament’s judiciary committee approved the decision on Thursday after summoning Shameem for a closed-door meeting to hear his response to the no-confidence motion.

Despite Shameem’s request to livestream the meeting, the committee held it behind closed doors.

Eight members voted in favor of passing the motion while two voted against.

PG Shameem asserted that he was being sacked without even questioning him regarding the “baseless” allegations because he had shut down the loopholes for criminals to survive.

He has denied the accusations pinned against him by the committee and claimed that the attempt to oust him was because he has formed an institution that is free from undue influence.

Parliament received the motion seeking to dismiss the prosecutor general on 13 August 2024.

MP for Hulhudhoo constituency Mohamed Shahid submitted the motion.

According to the ruling party’s lawmaker, some of the main reasons why Shameem should be sacked from his position include the decision to file the corruption case against former Minister of Sports Ahmed Mahloof as well as the sexual assault case against former Minister of Tourism Ali Waheed.

Other reasons cited by the MP include, the decision to not appeal the lower court’s verdict over the “safari rape case” that surfaced in 2020 as well as the decision to drop the charges of human trafficking, raised against former MP for Milandhoo constituency Ali Riza.

Further, the MP cited the decision to drop charges in connection with several cases linked to alcohol consumption and mentioned that Shameem took to social media platform Instagram to share a picture of a bottle of alcohol.

The motion also highlighted that Shameem had refused to investigate alleged same-sex relations by a lawyer at the PG Office, alongside the decision to prosecute some and not other suspects in connection with the case linked to Alamgiri and issues with the ventilator case.

As such, the PG’s decision to not pursue charges in the ventilator corruption case was also cited as a reason.

Another reason cited by the parliamentarian was that there was discrimination among PG Office employees.

Citing all these reasons, MP Shahid moved to oust PG Shameem.