Siyad Qasim’s trial: State has no incriminating evidence

State prosecutors have said that they do not have the necessary evidence to prove the bribery charge against Siyad Qasim, the son of Jumhoree Party (JP) leader Qasim Ibrahim.

After the prosecutors read out the charges against Siyad at the preliminary hearing on Sunday, he denied the charges after saying that they had no basis.

The state prosecutor said that police found a black backpack inside jailed former Judicial Administrator Hassan Saeed’s apartment inside which was a letter signed by Siyad, the director of Villa.

The prosecutor said the letter contained information which showed that Siyad worked with jailed Supreme Court Justice Ali Hameed’s son Ahmed Misfiru to trasnfer USD 2.4 million in three months to three people, as well as that Villa company had made payments to reserve lakefront villas in Malaysia’s Cyberjaya in the names of Justice Hameed and jailed Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed’s children.

Siyad was charged on allegations that the financial transactions recorded in the letter was to bribe Chief Justice Saeed and Justice Hameed to order the release of Siyad’s father Qasim Ibrahim on February 1.

The state has submitted 33 pieces of evidence including numerous documents and officers as witnesses. Most of the documents are confidential but documents 16 and 17 raised some questions. The two documents contain information on Villa Shipping and Trading’s shareholders and the company’s financial transactions to reserve villas in Cyberjaya.

Siyad’s legal representative Noorul Salaam Abubakur asked how many pages the two confidential documents contain. The prosecutor said that document 16 has two pages but found it difficult to answer for document 17. After a while, the prosecutor said that although they have received information that the necessary evidence for document 17 have been obtained, the state has yet to receive them.

In response, the defense noted that Siyad has spent more than 100 days in prison during the police investigation and after the prosecutor general raised the bribery charges, even though the state has yet to obtain the necessary evidence. Raising charges based on evidence not obtained goes against criminal procedures, said the defense attorney.

Presiding Judge Ahmed Hailam also asked whether the state has evidence that Villa paid for reservations at villas in Cyberjaya. The state prosecutor repeated that they have not obtained evidence but that they have received information that the transaction documents exist.

Judge Hailam ordered the state to submit evidence for document 17 before 12pm, Monday, and said that he would decided whether to proceed with the trial after receiving the evidence.