Ex-president's appeal trial: hearing scheduled for Wednesday

A hearing in the appeal trail of former president Abdulla Yameen has been scheduled at the High Court, for Wednesday.

The hearing is set for 1pm.

While the court had, during the lockdown imposed following the Covid-19 pandemic, conducted some hearings via videoconferencing, it had decided to conduct hearings in the former president’s case at the courtroom.

Yameen was convicted on money-laundering charges on November 28th last year, for 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 sentenced to five years in prison and fined USD five million to be paid within in six months.

The former president’s team appealed his conviction and subsequent sentencing, on November 30th.

While the first appeal hearing was held in January this year, the last one was held on March 5.

At the last hearing, the defence was given the opportunity present a defence. Hence, the prosecution will respond to these, at the next hearing.

The former president was also summoned to the Maldives Police Service (MPS) for questioning in connection to a separate case of money-laundering, earlier this year.

While the police is probing additional cases against Yameen, his family has requested a transfer to house arrest over his declining health. While authorities are yet to grant this, the High Court had also denied a request to review the court’s initial decision to deny him bail arrangements and delaying his prison sentence.

Yameen won the 2013 presidential elections and assumed office in November that year. The Yameen administration faced multiple allegations, including corruption and gross human rights violations.