Ex-president's appeal trial: hearing scheduled for Monday
The hearing is scheduled for 1pm on Monday
Former President Abdulla Yameen
A hearing in the appeal trail of former president Abdulla Yameen has been scheduled at the High Court for Monday.
The hearing is scheduled for 1pm on Monday.
The former president was convicted on money-laundering charges on 28 November for misappropriating US dollars through the state-owned Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) via a private company Scores of Flair, during his presidency.
He was slapped with a five-year prison sentence and fined USD five million to be paid within in six months.
The former president’s legal team made requests at the High Court to issue an order delaying his five-year prison sentence and to make bail arrangements for him, at a time an appeal had been made at the High Court on the five-year prison sentence slapped on him during November.
The hearing has been scheduled at a time the former president had been brought for medical treatment to capital city Malé on 19 February. During an appeal hearing earlier, Yameen highlighted health issues including mental health and heart issues, adding that he had been receiving treatment even before he was convicted.
Yameen has since been transferred back to his prison cell after the required tests were done.
While hearings in connection to two requests made by the ex-president concluded at the High Court by the end of January the court decided that Yameen cannot be released under bail.
The former president’s legal representative asserted that the former must be granted bail under rights guaranteed to him under the constitution, highlighting that these rights are ensured for convicts in other countries as well, during previous hearings, to which state attorneys responded that he was found guilty of money-laundering and as such, the state does not believe he should be released under bail under any circumstances.
The presiding judge over Yameen’s money-laundering trial is Judge Hussain Mazeed. The other two judges presiding over the case are Judge Hussain Shaheed and Judge Mohamed Niyaz.
