Investigators have forwarded the allegations of attempting to bribe a public official against Jumhooree Party leader Qasim Ibrahim, to the Prosecutor General’s Office. 

MP Qasim Ibrahim was summoned to police questioning on Wednesday, two days after last week’s vote of no-confidence against parliament speaker Abdulla Maseeh, as well as on Sunday.

He told the press after having left the Maldives Police Service (MPS) headquarters that he was being investigated for ‘intimidation, influencing the conduct of a public official, and influence a voter’. Prior to the vote, accounts belonging to Villa’s shipping subsidiary had also been frozen.

The state has frozen accounted listed under his Villa Group – one of the largest private sector corporations in the country – and he has been banned from travelling abroad. 

JP, along with rest of its four-party coalition released a statement calling on the government to end the political-motivated charges. 

READ MORE: Opposition parties condemn new wave of harassment