The Supreme Court has ruled that former President Abdullah Yameen’s bank accounts were frozen illegally and hence the order to withhold his accounts should be reverted.
In a virtual hearing held today, the country’s top court said that the ruling to freeze the ex-President’s bank accounts failed to comply with a procedure stipulated in the law on the Criminal Procedure Code. It said the article of the said law can only be activated upon seeking an order to monitor the activities of the bank account and such an order was not issued.
The Supreme Court ruling read that when the Criminal Court issued an order to the Police to freeze 8 accounts the former President had opened at Maldives Islamic Bank in relation to the MMPRC scandal, the funds in these accounts had no connection to the scandal and hence the Supreme Court would overrule the lower court’s order.
Last year, the Criminal Court issued an order to freeze the former President’s accounts after saying that these accounts were connected to the MMPRC scandal and that he could gain financial benefits if the accounts were left alone which would be detrimental to the state.
But once Yameen’s defense team appealed the order at the High Court, it overturned the lower Court’s decision based on Articles 72 and 73 of the law on Criminal Procedure Code.
The state then turned to the Supreme Court in a bid to overturn the verdict from the High Court but would be left disheartened by the top’s Court verdict in favor of the ex-President currently serving a jail sentence.
The opposition was quick to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision today with PNC Leader Abdul Raheem Abdullah stating that this ruling once again proved that the charges filed against the former President were politically motivated.
