High Court Upholds Criminal Court Ruling in Yameen Case

The High Court has upheld the Criminal Court's ruling in the State's case against the former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom. The State convicted him on the charges of money-laundering and sentenced him to a five-year prison sentence.

The Panel of Judges declared that since there was reason to believe that the money deposited into the defendant's bank account by SOF had been procured through criminal means, this therefore fulfilled the first element of a money-laundering charge. They also said that his transfer of the USD 1 million from his personal account to an investment bank account, to profit therefrom, fullfilled the second element of such a charge. The Panel also decided that transferring USD 1 million, which he had not received from SOF, into an escrow account demonstrated that the defendant had attempted to obscure the origins of the funds.