Malé, Maldives – The Prosecutor General of Maldives Hussain Shameem has revealed to the Judiciary Committee of the Parliament, that alleged sexual predator and former Tourism Minister of Maldives Ali Waheed flew to Turkey and not the UK as previously believed.
Detailing his statement in a letter sent to the committee on 28th February, PG Shameem stated that Ali Waheed flew out of the country to Turkey on the 9th of February at exactly 23:07 via the Turkish Airline plane TK731, and that the court order to release his passport was also issued on the same day.
However, it was highlighted that due to a clerical mistake, the court order was dated as 10th and that the PG Office received the court order documents on the 11th, two days after Ali Waheed had already departed – something which was not certain at the time the matter came to light.
With this, MP of Feydhoo constituency Mohamed Nihad raised questions on how Ali Waheed was able to obtain the approval of Immigration to travel on the 9th, before the court order document was issued.
We need to look into who ordered, or which document was referred to when Immigration gave the approval.
Mohamed Nihad, MP of Feydhoo contitnuency
While this is so, Maldives Immigration had previously denied any foul play with regards to Ali Waheed’s travel approval.
Ali Waheed’s passport was released by the Criminal Court for a period of four months, with his friend and State Minister of Ministry of Youth, Sports and Community Empowerment Asadh Ali (Adubarey) as a guarantor of his return.
The Chair of the Judiciary Committee MP Imthiyaz Fahumee stated that several media outlets have reported that the PG Office’s attempt to appeal the release of Ali Waheed’s passport has was rejected by the Registrar of the High Court, but that the PG has appealed the matter with the Judge’s bench.
Ali Waheed was removed from office after multiple accusations were made against him of sexual nature, including attempt to rape, all which he still continues to deny.
His passport was released on medical grounds, where a local doctor had recommended that he requires urgent medical care for a condition in his backbone, which he does not recommend to be done from the Maldives. However, while the PG did not object to him traveling abroad for treatment, the court order was made against the request of PG, which was to issue a travel document instead of releasing his passport.
