After a long hiatus, former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb will have hearings on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) corruption scandal.

The hearings will begin at the Criminal Court at 11am. The preliminary hearings were held in August last year.

The audit report states that MVR 1.22 billion was embezzled from the state through MMPRC’s leasing of islands.

Adeeb is being charged over the cases of 10 of the 58 islands investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). He was charged separately for each island.

RaajjeMV understands that Adeeb is charged with using his position to transfer the 10 islands from the fisheries ministry to the tourism ministry for resort development.

Former Managing Director of MMPRC Abdulla Ziyath has been slapped with 25 charges. The ACC had requested that he be charged for 55 islands but he was charged with corruption over 25 of the islands separately after the police investigation.

Adeeb and Ziyath are already serving eight years in prison for embezzling USD 5 million that was owed to the state as acquisition cost after leasing Lh. Maabinhura.