Thursday
25th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
Justice Shaheed. Photo: RajjeMV
Justice Shaheed, who was among the judicial panel overseeing the appeals hearing on the State's money-laundering case against the former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom, has said that the High Court must overturn the Criminal Court's verdict.
When delivering his opinion, Justice Shaheed pointed out many reasons for overturning the lower court's ruling. He pointed out that the Criminal Court proceedings had several incidents that contravened the law.
The judge said that the former President had acted in "good faith" as he had taken the initiative to place the suspicious USD 1 million that had been deposited in his account in an escrow account that he had set up with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).
The former Vice President of the ACC, Muavviz Rasheed, had testified at the Criminal Court that the ACC had conditioned that the State would be permitted to withdraw the USD 1 million from the escrow account if needed.
In addition, Justice Shaheed said that both former VP Ahmed Adeeb, and the former MMPRC MD Abdulla Ziyath, were criminals and the State had not justified why their testimony should have been accepted by the Court. Therefore, their testimony against the appellant should have been rejected. He pointed out that they had given their testimony at the Criminal Court in contravention to a prior Supreme Court ruling.
He mentioned that there was nothing in the record which would give the testimonies of Adeeb and Ziyath any weight.
In addition, the judge said that the former VP Adeeb had attempted to inflict great harm onto the appellant and his family, and therefore should be treated as hostile; which would render his testimony unacceptable.
Even though Justice Shaheed's opinion had differed with the other two judges on the panel, the High Court had decided to uphold the Criminal Court's ruling.