Majlis committee votes to dismiss Judge Baaree

Parliament’s judiciary committee has voted to dismiss Juvenile Court Judge Abdul Baaree Yoosuf.

The dismissal motion was forwarded by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) earlier this month. It was forwarded to the judiciary committee for further review.

While the committee met on Sunday, it decided that JSC’s decision to dismiss Baaree was made after completing required procedures. The committee unanimously voted to forward the matter to the parliament floor, at the meeting.

JSC’s decision to seek Baaree’s dismissal through parliament came after investigations into various allegations against him. This includes benefiting from the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) graft, being actively involved in a business between May 2014 until the end of 2018 and failing to disclose the financial gain obtained through the business, holding secret meetings with former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb and giving Adeeb a copy of the court ruling in former President Mohamed Nasheed’s terrorism case, among others.

While the judge previously sat on the bench of the Criminal Court, he was abruptly demoted to the Juvenile Court in July 2017.

Prior to this, Judge Baaree had rejected a case against Jumhooree Party Leader and Maamigili Constituency MP, Qasim Ibrahim, from Court. The same case was filed again after Judge Baaree’s demotion with the Criminal Court passing a three-year, two month and 12-day sentence on MP Qasim for attempted bribery charges.