Male’, Maldives – Highlighting that Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has gotten all the powers, implying the presidential and parliamentary majority Is held by the party, MP of Villimale’ constituency has asked what more is needed to improve the situation of the country.
Usham’s comments came following a tweet sent out by MP of Fonadhoo constituency Moosa Siraj, regarding the verdict of the Supreme Court which declared that the Criminal Court’s decision to free former President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Qayyoom’s accounts was unlawful.
As such Siraj said in his tweet that the price of the blunder made by Maldives Police and former Prosecutor General (PG) Bisham had to be paid by the general public. He also added that now that PG Bisham has been removed, the next step should be to reform Police and to familiarize them with the law.
In response to Siraj, Usham also sent out a tweet asking how long they would continue to blame everything on the previous government and former PG Bisham.
“You got the government. You got the Parliament. You got the judiciary. What more do you need to improve things?” Usham asked.
While this is so, Supreme Course Justice Husnul Sudood, who presided over bench of judges deliberating on the case of former President Yameen, said in the hearing held regarding the matter that the state failed to explain the connection between the money in the eight accounts of Yameen opened in the Maldives Islamic Bank (MIB) and the USD 1 million transferred to the escrow account opened by the Anti Corruption Commission of Maldives (ACC) in Bank of Maldives (BML), by a BML account opened in the name of Yameen.
He also said that the state did not state that the money in the eight accounts of Yameen in MIB and that of the embezzled funds from Maldives Media and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) had any connection.
Hence, Suood declared that the Supreme Court of Maldives supports and upholds the decision of the High Court of Maldives, which stated that the decision of the Criminal Court of Maldives to have frozen the accounts of Yameen was unlawful. Suood’s decision was supported by the other two judges on the Supreme Court bench, Dr. Azmiralda Zahir and Justice Aisha Shujoon Mohamed.
While this case ended in favour of Yameen, the appeal case regarding Yameen receiving a five year jail sentence on money laundering charges has also reached a verdict.
The MMPRC case, which surfaced in 2015, is the largest corruption scandal to rock the Maldives in history. Following initial investigations, the Auditor General’s Office disclosed that MVR 1.2 billion in state funds, acquired via island and lagoon leases, had been embezzled via the corporation, which later increased to MVR 1.4 billion after the investigation by Anti Corruption Commission (ACC).
