"State wants to keep me pushed to a corner," claims former vice president

“The state wants to keep me pushed to a corner,” claims former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb.

Adeeb, who also served as the tourism ministry for a brief period during the previous administration, made the claim at an appeal hearing at the High Court on Thursday morning. The state had appealed the lower court’s decision to drop all charges against Adeeb, and is seeking to keep him under remand until the end of the appeal trial.

Adeeb arrived at the hearing solo without an attorney. Noting that he received the documents related to the case on Wednesday, Adeeb said that he had not had the time to appoint a lawyer. He requested additional time, to appoint one.

Noting that the state believes that he should be given the opportunity to appoint legal representation, prosecutors stressed the importance of expediting a decision in such a case over a person’s remand. Prosecutors added that they believe that Adeeb had the adequate time to appoint a defence attorney.

Further, the state highlighted Adeeb’s previous attempt to flee and stressed that he could make another such attempt if given the opportunity.

Responding to the state, the former vice president said that their aim “is to keep [him] pushed to a corner at all times”.

Further noting that he has served time for the flee attempt, Adeeb said that it is “saddening” to see the state had declared him a flight risk.

The judges’ bench -comprising of Judges Shuaib Hussain, Mohamed Niyaz and Hussain Mazeed- agreed with the state that there is threat of Adeeb fleeing, and that a decision on his remand should be sped up.

Hence, the court is to make a ruling in the case on Thursday evening.

The Criminal Court dropped the seven charges raised against Adeeb last week, on the ground that a plea deal signed between him and the state was entered wrongfully. While the court’s ruling claimed that the former VP was forced to sign the deals on the grounds that he will be provided medical leave, the prosecutor general said that this is not true as two of the deals signed were after he returned from treatment.

The presiding judge in the trial, Ismail Rasheed, is being investigated by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and has been suspended for 60 days.