Malé, Maldives – The Prosecutor General’s Office today laid out their charges against former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom at the Criminal Court hearing today.
Prosecution is charging former President Yameen with money laundering and acceptance of a bribe of USD 1 million from former MP of Felidhoo Constituency Yusuf Naeem. The charges for both parties are as follows.
- Former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom – Money laundering under Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing Act, 2014 (Act No. 10 of 2014) and acceptance of a bribe under Chapter 510(a)(d) of the Maldives Penal Code (Law No. 6/2014)
- Former MP of Felidhoo Constituency Yusuf Naeem – Bribery under Chapter 510(b)(d) of the Maldives Penal Code (Law No. 6/2014)
The Prosecution detailed a timeline of the alleged events, stating that on 15 September 2015 Yusuf Naeem handed over a check of USD 1 million which was deposited to ex President Yameen’s HSBC account on the following day, 16 September 2015.
President Yameen allegedly transferred USD 1,001,409 from the HSBC account to his BML account on 22 February 2016. USD 1,295,000 was then transferred to an MIB account from the BML account almost a year later on 21 February 2017.
A month later on 14 March 2017, USD 3,413,230 was then transferred to a general investment account at the same bank, MIB, for 36 months.
The prosecution is seeking to seize the alleged bribe amount, any additional amounts from ex President Yameen’s bank accounts and any resulting profit from investments.
While the defence will file it’s arguments at the next hearing, former President Yameen said that he did not understand the charges against him at today’s hearing.
Earlier, ex President Yameen’s defence requested for the case hearings to be aired live which was not made possible at today’s hearing by the court due to administrative issues. This issue will also be addressed at the next hearing.
