Malé, Maldives – Criminal Court Judge Ismail Rasheed who released the verdict to drop all 7 charges against Former Vice President Ahmed Adeeb has resigned.
In his resignation letter, Ismail Rasheed stated that all the decisions he had made and all the actions he did while he was a judge was in accordance to the constitution of Maldives and Islamic law. He added that he had not done anything to anyone, in any case, which was unjust or unfair.
His resignation comes while Judiciary Committee had proposed to remove Ismail Rasheed from his judgeship in todays parliament sitting. Last year, Ismail Rasheed was even suspended and resumed his duties after concluding his 60-day suspension.
According to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC), Ismail Rasheed had gone directly against the Maldives Criminal Procedure Code 13 when ruling on the matter. The JSC stated that the pendrive they got from an investigation had a document saved as “trip finale v2” by Ismail Rasheed which detailed the verdict to drop the corruption charges against Adeeb on February 22 which was drafted prior to the ruling.
JSC told that they had found this odd as a computer system was made for Ismail Rasheed in the Criminal Court, but he had put specific cases in a pendrive, and labeled it in an unexplainable way.
JSC added that the fact that the final decision on cases before it was even prosecuted, is in the pendrive, questioned the integrity of the judge. JSC had concluded that the former Judge Ismail Rasheed’s actions went against Article 32 and 33 of the Judges Constitution.
Adeeb, who was the Minister of Tourism during the MVR 1.3 billion bribe of Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC), was charged with two counts of embezzlement, two charges of money laundering, exerting influence for illicit gains for himself and another party, and abusing his power in an official position.
