Home Minister Imran Abdulla has said that incarcerated former President Abdulla Yameen’s lawyers do not want to meet with him.

The minister made the claim via Twitter, after the Criminal Court made the decision to issue an order to the Maldives Correctional Services (MCS) to arrange a meeting for Yameen and his legal team.

Imran said that such an order is yet to be issued, but that MCS had initiated “several” attempts for the meeting to take place.

He added that the meeting has not been held “as [Yameen’s] lawyer does not want to [meet with him].”

Sunday’s hearing in the new bribery and money laundering charges against the former president was delayed after it was claimed that the jailed former president had not been able to meet with his attorneys to discuss the case.

Hence, the hearing is to be rescheduled in about two weeks, after Yameen is allowed to meet with his team.

At the hearing, prosecutors maintained that there had been enough time for the lawyers to meet with their client. As such, the state attorney said that while the fresh charges were raised against Yameen on June 28, that his attorneys had only requested a meeting on August 4. Noting that they had missed this meeting, prosecutors said that a second meeting was requested on August 11 and that this will be arranged for Monday as per MCS.

However, Yameen’s lawyer and his former deputy, Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed claimed that MCS had rejected their requests thrice.

While Yameen is already serving a five-year sentence for money laundering regarding the acquisition costs of G. A. Vodamullah, the new charges are related to the lease of Fuggiri island in Raa atoll.

He stands to face four years rising to a maximum of eight years if proven guilty of the corruption charges and stands a jail term between five to 15 years and a fine ranging between MVR 100,000 and a million if the money-laundering charges are proven. The highest amount estimated to be imposed as fines is MVR 5,585,000.