Supreme Court says that it did not issue an arrest warrant for former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb because “he was serving a sentence.”

The country’s top court said this via a press release on Monday, responding to a report published by ‘Mihaaru’, indicating that the Supreme Court’s refusal to issue an arrest warrant had led to Adeeb’s flee attempt.

The report cited Prosecutor General Aishath Bisham saying that Adeeb would not have been able to flee, had the court issued the arrest warrant.

Supreme Court said that it was not able to issue an arrest warrant for the former vice president at the time of request, as he was already serving a sentence.

Noting that the request was made while Adeeb was in India after being granted medical leave, the court highlighted that he would not been able to attend a related hearing.

Further noting that issuing a remand period without a defendant’s presence “is against criminal procedures,’ Supreme Court said that it did not see the purpose of issuing an arrest warrant for someone that was already serving a sentence.

While the state has requested this as a precautionary measure as the former VP was a flight risk, the court highlighted that it had complied with the PG’s second request.

As such, it said that the order to withhold Adeeb’s passport was issued after looking into the temporary order requested by PG.

Further, the top court highlighted that PG Office had not submitted an additional request, after the completion of Adeeb’s sentence.

It further claimed that Mihaaru’s report was “false”.

Supreme Court has since scheduled a hearing in Adeeb’s embezzlement case, for Tuesday.