The Supreme Court has today annulled the verdicts by the lower courts against former President Abdullah Yameen after convicting him of money laundering.
In 2019, the Criminal Court had sentenced the ex-President to five years in jail after finding him guilty of money laundering and also fined him USD 5 million for the crime. He had appealed the criminal court's verdict at the High Court but the upper court had also supported the lower court's decision.
Yameen had appealed to the Supreme Court to overturn the lower court's verdict in April this year and held 8 hearings starting from 12th September.
A three-judge bench had overseen the ex-President's case and all three had supported today's verdict announced by presiding judge Mahaz Ali Zahir.
He was joined by supreme court judge Mohamed Ibrahim and Supreme Court judge Azmiralda Zahir.
At the hearing today, Judge Mahaz had questioned the evidence submitted by the State to prove Yameen's crime. He further questioned the allegations that USD 1 million had been deposited into the former President's account and said that it remains unclear how the money was deposited.
He said that insufficient investigation was carried out regarding the money that was deposited and that the State had failed to take the statements from the two individuals who were involved in depositing the money into the ex-President's account.
The judge went on to say that state prosecutors had failed to successfully prove the money laundering charges against Yameen and that the evidence was established against the law.
Hence he said that the rulings by the lower courts has been annulled and that the ex-President had been freed from his five-year sentence.
