Malé, Maldives – The Supreme Court of Maldives on Monday revoked the High Court ruling, allowing the appeal of SeaLife MD Ahmed Moosa’s case.
Criminal Court of Maldives granted a conditional release to Ahmed Moosa for a third time on 20 March 2022. Prosecutor General’s Office appealed the Criminal Court decision at the High Court following which the High Court determined that the appeal was made outside the 48-hour window and rejected the appeal.
The Supreme Court revoked the High Court decision today and ordered the lower court to hear the appeal.
Ahmed Moosa was extradited to the Maldives from Sri Lanka via Interpol Red notice on 24 March 2021 by Maldives Police after he disappeared in Sri Lanka previously.
Ahmed Moosa is charged with 42 counts of criminal offences, with up to 65 years of imprisonment if convicted. The prosecutors are charging Ahmed Moosa under articles of the Maldives Penal Code (Law No. 6/2014),
- Section 214, Theft of Services – 12 counts (under Subsection B) and 25 other charges.
- Section 215, Theft by Failure to Deliver Funds Entrusted (under Subsection A and B)
- Section 210, Theft, misrepresentation, Deception, Extortion and Disposition (under Subsection B) – 5 counts.
The SeaLife housing fraud case was the biggest class-action lawsuit in Maldivian history.
In 2015, SeaLife announced a 3,000 apartment housing complex following a contract by Housing Development Corporation (HDC) in 2014. The company received booking fees of MVR 50,000 and more per tenant from 280 individuals for a complex that was never built and no reimbursements were made.
SeaLife scammed over MVR 14 million from 280 individuals.
In January 2019, 203 tenants of the SeaLife housing complex sued SeaLife Global, HDC and the Ministry of Economic Development.
