Joint parliament committee continues closed-door analysis of MMPRC list, 14 names added to total 281 suspects

A Joint Parliamentary Committee including the Judiciary Committee and Committee on National Security Services have been conducting a closed-door review of a list of those involved in the Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation case, to which the addition of 14 names has left 281 names in total, suspected of having benefitted illegitimately from grand corruption.

The list had been prepared following an investigation conducted into the case by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the Asset Recovery Commission, and is being analyzed by the joint parliament committee behind closed-door meetings. The list had initially included 267 names, but the subsequent addition of 14 names have increased the total number of names to 281.

The People's Majlis had requested that authorities present them with a list of those that had benefited from the MMPRC grand corruption scandal, including those who were in top-positions in the government, cabinet ministers, state ministers, those working in the judiciary and in law enforcement, those in independent institutions and working in national security, in addition to those that were MPs, or are currently members of the People's Majlis.

The list had been compiled and submitted to parliament under direct request of former president and Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed on Wednesday, one day before he had been severely wounded in an assassination attempt outside his home in Male' City.

During the meeting held to analyze the list of names, chair for the Joint Parliament Committee and MP for the North-Maafannu constituency Imthiyaz Fahmy confirmed that in the list submitted to the committee had included 281 names, and that it had been compiled after investigations conducted by the ACC, the Asset Recovery Commission, the Maldives Police Service and the Prosecutor General's Office.

He also revealed that the Asset Recovery Commission had requested the committee keep the contents of the list in secret as the investigation into the MMPRC corruption case was still ongoing. In describing the list, MP Imithiyaz Fahmy stated that the list did not include names of those who could not be linked to crimes in the case, and that names had been arranged based on their degree of participation in the MMPRC corruption.

The list of those that had benefitted from MMPRC corruption, which had been revealed by the Maldives Police Service earlier, had included 44 former members of parliament, and 14 sitting MPs of the 19th People's Majlis. Seven members of government in the Solih administration were also suspect, along with 30 top-leaders of the Yaameen administration. Five former members of independent institutions, five judges and seven officers of national security forces.

MP for the Thulhaadhoo constituency Hisaan Hussain had replaced Deputy Speaker of Parliament and MP for the North-Galolhu constituency Eva Abdulla at the joint committee meeting held on Saturday. Following the shock-assassination attempt on former president and Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed, Deputy Speaker Eva will be fulfilling the role of Speaker of Parliament until his return.

Deputy Speaker Eva had asserted that the joint committee's efforts, along with the separate enquiry being pursued by the Committee on National Security Services following the attack on Speaker Nasheed, would be the designated as top priorities for the People's Majlis at this time.

Former President Nasheed had been very vocal in pursuing justice in the MMPRC corruption case in recent days, and had expressed that influential political figures could not divert from the case no matter how powerful they were.