Second amendment to law on ex-presidents' privileges, ratified

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has on Monday ratified the second amendment to the Former Presidents’ Protection and Benefit Act.

The People’s Majlis approved the amendment at its 73rd sitting on December 2. 66 lawmakers voted to pass the amendment bill proposed by Kanditheemu constituency MP Abdulla Shaheem Abdul Hakeem.

The amendment bill was forwarded to the parliament in August, and was sent to its committee on national security and foreign relations for further review.

It revokes article 10 (b) of the Act and makes Article 10 (a) as Article 10 only; Article 10 now states that that the law will be applied only after the enactment of the legislation.

While the amendment has been approved by parliament and ratified by the president, former President Abdulla Yameen was sentenced to five years in prison on November 28. Yameen, Solih’s predecessor who served from 2013 to 2018, was found guilty of laundering USD one million through the state-owned Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) via a private company SoF, during his presidency. He was also fined USD five million, to be paid in six months.

The parliament had in 2015, where Yameen’s Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) held majority, passed the first amendment to the Former Presidents’ Protection and Benefit Act; according to this amendment, the provision applies to former presidents found guilty of a criminal offence even prior to the ratification of the bill.