Yameen’s trial: defence given five days to present witnesses, next hearing on Aug. 4

Sunday’s hearing on former President Abdulla Yameen’s trial concluded after the court scheduled the next hearing for August 4 after giving the defence five days to present witnesses.

The first hearing on the former president's trial over money laundering charges was broadcast live.

At the hearing, the state attorneys said the one million US dollars in question was transferred to a Maldives Islamic Bank general investment account under Yameen's name, on 14 March 2017, in a way that confused its origins. This was done against the agreement with Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which required Yameen to transfer the funds to an escrow account.

State attorneys accused Yameen of accepting the embezzled money while knowing that it came from Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), as the transaction was done after he was questioned over the case, on 7 February 2017.

They also said that the money which was eventually deposited to the escrow account were acquired from a third party, which was against the agreement made with the ACC.

Yameen's defence attorneys said that that the charges do not specify a situation which could create suspicion on how he was involved in money laundering and do not highlight a specific date or time Yameen committed the crime and thus, is against Article 82(e) of the Criminal Procedure Act.

They also said that the charges do not specify a specific illegal act that Yameen had committed and that the state is not confident of whether Yameen had committed an act of corruption.

In response, state attorneys said that there is no reason why this case cannot be classified under article 22 of the Criminal Procedure Act and refuted the defence's claims that charges were raised against Yameen against articles 17 and 20 of the Maldives constitution.

Yameen's defence attorneys also said that they do not know where the funds deposited to the escrow account came from and that they believe it was deposited by former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb.

Speaking at the hearing, Yameen said that no investigative authority requested him to return the money and that he had found out that it was embezzled cash through former ACC President Luthufee. Yameen said that, afterwards, an escrow account was created to hold the money but he refrained from making the transfer because the investigation was ongoing.

The court rejected five of the defence’s points, including that Adeeb and Ziyath’s court testimony would be a result of their hostility towards Yameen, and that specifying a date and time of the crime is required to charge him.

The Criminal Court rejected the state’s witnesses Mohamed Allam Latheef and Ahmed Ishfah Ali, who are connected to the MMPRC case, as they were presented after the charges were raised, and accepted former ACC President Hassan Luthufee, current ACC President Muavviz Rasheed, former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb, former Minister of Tourism Moosa Zameer, former heard of MMPRC Abdulla Ziyath, Mohamed Luaviz, Mohamed Waseem Ismail, and Mohamed Shareef.

The state also presented the ACC’s escrow agreement with Yameen, ACC’s investigative report, and other documents as evidence.