High Court to announce verdict on Shamaan's appeal on Tuesday

The High Court has scheduled the announcement of the verdict on the case filed by former Controller General of Immigration, Mohamed Shamaan Waheed, seeking to annul the Criminal Court order that ordered his remand, on multiple allegations of corruption.

The Criminal Court ordered Shamaan's detention for 15 days on March 22. Although Shamaan appealed his detention case to the High Court on March 26, the court initially rejected the case. However, Shamaan's side appealed the Registrar's decision to the High Court judges' panel. On April 9, the three judges unanimously decided that the case should be heard.

Shamaan is currently in detention pending trial. While Shamaan has appealed his detention case to the High Court, he was arrested under a court order in connection with allegations that some Maldives Immigration employees were misusing their official influence to obtain undue benefits from foreign workers.

The High Court has scheduled the announcement of the verdict on Shamaan's appeal case for Tuesday at 1:15pm. The bench of judges hearing the case includes Justice Abdul Maniu Hussain, Justice Mohamed Niyaz, and Justice Hassan Shafeeq.

In the case Shamaan filed with the High Court on March 26, it was stated that the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the standard for allowing an appeal can be met by merely claiming that the judge made a legal error, or that rights were violated, or that justice was obstructed.

In the case filed by Shamaan, it was stated that while Shamaan is suspected of corruption-related money, money laundering investigations cannot be conducted at all without investigating corruption cases. It also stated that the police conducting the investigation without involvement of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) was entirely against the law governing investigations.

However, the High Court said that although the police's allegation against Shamaan is a suspicion of money laundering, the order to keep him in detention was issued based on evaluating evidence related to corruption. The High Court also said that the appealed order did not specify which corruption-related evidence it was based on.

The High Court said that Shamaan's case could not be accepted because it did not describe a situation that required an appellate court to intervene.

Shamaan was arrested when he reported to Henveiru Police Station on the night of Friday, March 21, to sign the inventory of items taken by police after searching his residence.

The Maldives Police Service (MPS) has said that a foreigner was released with MVR 530,000 on Shamaan's order. In connection with the case, police have searched Shamaan's residence and taken a large amount of money and electronic equipment into police custody.

The four people arrested in the case besides Shamaan are Mohamed Alsan Ismail, 21, native to Buruni island of Thaa atoll, Ibrahim Ahmed, 37 and Hassan Saheshan, 47, native to capital Malé City. These three suspects were arrested on the night of March 20. On March 21, Ahmed Lassan, 40, native to capital Malé City was arrested.

In addition to this, police said that two people have been barred from leaving the country under a court order in connection with the case. They also said that a phone belonging to a member of Shamaan's family was confiscated under a court order.

Shamaan's family has said that the sudden dismissal of former Controller General of Immigration Shamaan Waheed from his position is not a coincidence, and that Shamaan was arrested within 24 hours of a foreigner connected to Minister of Homeland Security and Technology Ali Ihusaan being brought under Immigration custody.

In a statement released on the night of April 23, Shamaan's family said that when the foreigner was brought into Immigration custody, Minister Ihusaan had called Shamaan and instructed him to hand over the foreigner's phone to a specific police officer.

However, Shamaan responded that the request could only be processed through an official note. According to the statement, upon hearing this, the home minister allegedly raised his voice and abruptly ended the call.

Shamaan’s family claims he was arrested and remanded until the end of the trial based on false accusations and fabricated, invalid evidence. They went on to allege that the actions were motivated by Ihusaan’s personal and political animosity toward Shamaan.