Male’, Maldives – Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has sent a proposal to the Parliament to dismiss the Chief Judge of Criminal Court, Abdul Bari Yoosuf.
The proposal has been sent after Bari received approximately one year of suspension from his job. Bari was suspended on December 12 of 2019 after Maldives Police Service revealed that they will be investigating the accusation over Bari for being among the judges who received personal gain from the funds that were embezzled through Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC).
According to a statement released by JSC, they have investigated the allegation over Bari of receiving personal gains from the funds through MMPRC.
JSC further revealed that they have also investigated the issue regarding the profit not being disclosed from May, 2014 till February, 2018, when Bari was involved in the commerce of the given time period.
The statement released by JSC reads that while they were looking into the matter of the judges who were falsely giving out verdicts in accordance to how the previous government wanted, their investigation revealed that Bari received whatever he wished for during these days as a judge.
“When Judge Abdul Bari Yoosuf wanted a flat, an agreement was made to let Judge Abdul Bari Yoosuf get a flat under his wife’s name, during the same days, Judge Abdul Bari Yoosuf also received MVR 500,000 from Ahmed Adheeb, who was the the Vice President of Maldives back then, while Judge Abdul Bari Yoosuf also paid MVR 600,000 in cash in advance to buy the registered flat, the investigation done by this commission reveals that Judge Abdul Bari Yoosuf received this money illegally”
The statement released by JSC read.
While the investigations were ongoing on 2019, information was revealed that MVR 1.4 billion (US$90 million) from state coffers through MMPRC was sent to several private accounts that involved of the senior government officials back then.
Due to this, JSC also started investigating several other judges over various issues, to which, the judges either ended being suspended for the allegations over them or for being dismissed from their positions.
Bari was initially appointed as the judge of the Criminal Court of Maldives, however, he was abruptly changed to the Juvenile Court on 2017. While Bari was at the Criminal Court, he had taken over several major cases including the cases that involved high profile politicians.
