PG Bisham cannot raise charges against me, there is a conflict of interest: Azima

Former Legal Affairs Minister at the President’s Office, Azima Shakoor has stated that Prosecutor General Aishath Bisham cannot press charges of money laundering and providing false information to the state, against her and that if she does, it will create a conflict of interest.

Judge Ahmed Hailam had presided over the preliminary hearing in the money laundering case against Azima, which was held on Thursday.

During the hearing, Azima had questioned whether PG Bisham "had a hand" in raising said charges against her to which state prosecutors responded that Azima is not at liberty to ask the question and that the state cannot raise a charge against an individual without the involvement of the prosecutor general.

Azima had stated that she does not believe Bisham can press the charges against her.

Noting that she had held the post of Legal Affairs Minister from January 2016, Azima said that Bisham had held the post of Legal Secretary to then President Abdulla Yameen until November that year.

Hence, she said that she has been charged over something that is to have taken place while the current PG was at the said post, and that her involvement in raising charges "creates a conflict of interest."

Hailam had questioned Azima whether Bisham remaining in the position during that time is an obstruction to the charges against her. Azima responded that Bisham had a hand in the money laundering case as she was the one providing legal counsel to the former president.

State prosecutors had in turn refuted this, asserting that Bisham had not worked at the President’s Office within the said the duration, adding that it was Azima's signatures found on Yameen's case documents; the former president has been charged with money laundering while Azima is charged with aiding him.

Some of the said documents include the one made with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to create the escrow account on 25 March 2018 in which Azima had signed as a witness. State prosecutors stated that Bisham had no hand in this. In addition, witness testimonies prove that a draft to create the escrow account was formed in June 2016 to which changes were brought later on.

Once the escrow account was made, Azima is to have compiled a set of questions which the ACC would pose to Yameen once brought for questioning.

State submitted the names of six witnesses against Azima; former President Yameen, ACC President Muavviz Rasheed, former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb, former Managing Director of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) Abdulla Ziyath, ACC’s former President Hassan Luthufee and Mohamed Shareef.

In addition, it presented bank details of Yameen, former Tourism Minister Moosa Zameer and a Mohamed Waseem Ismail, as well as Azima's statement from when she was summoned to the police for questioning.

Having stated that she had not taken sufficient documents in her defense, Azima requested for another hearing. She asserted that she needs to complete all the documents required to clear up the charges against her, and stated that she wishes to proceed once this is done.

While Azima had requested for two weeks to complete said documents, Judge Hailam had given her 10 days to do so.

The next hearing in the case will be held on August 13.

While Azima represented herself at Thursday's hearing, former Deputy Prosecutor General Mariyam Nihayath had accompanied her.

Charges were raised against her in February for allegedly assisting Yameen and the Criminal Court was only able to hand over the case documents last Thursday; the court had been unable to serve her a summon notice until this month as she was out of the country.

Azima claims that the charges were raised to silence her through “trumped up” charges, and denied taking any money “ever.”

Former President Yameen was charged with money laundering in February as well, and the preliminary hearing in the case was held in April. While the Court had ordered to keep him in remand until the trial concludes, he was released by the High Court during the appeal process.