Court orders ex-president Yameen to be detained

COLOMBO (News 1st) - The Criminal Court of Maldives has ordered the former President Abdulla Yameen to be kept in detention until his trial concludes. Yameen was summoned to court on Monday(February 18), over money laundering charges raised against him in relation to the Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation (MMPRC) embezzlement case. The Prosecutor General (PG) raised money laundering charges last week following the completion of the police investigation. The case was forwarded on February 6 and the case documents were handed over to him on Sunday(February 17). At the hearing, the state prosecutor Aishath Mohamed noted that Yameen had attempted to bribe witnesses in order to make them change their testimonies. He is to be kept in Dhoonidhoo Detention Center until the next hearing. The charges carry a sentence of fifteen years, and a fine amounting to three times the sum that was initially scammed. At the same time, the police is attempting to prosecute Yameen for giving false testimony to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) during the investigation. ACC’s report exposed that Scores of Flair (SoF), the company used to scam MMPRC, had deposited $1mn to Yameen. The PG has also filed charges against Azima Shakoor, the former legal affairs minister, for providing false information and misleading the investigative authorities and aiding Yameen with money-laundering.