Former President Abdullah Yameen has denied the charges filed against him in the case of the sale of Vaa Arah to a company for resort development.
He denied the charges at the hearing of the case held at the Criminal Court today.
Yameen was charged with money laundering and taking a bribe in relation to the case back in November of last year.
The State had accused Yameen of taking a bribe of USD 1 million for the transaction between Yoosuf Naeem and Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation to lease the island to the former.
The state's charge sheet accused Yameen of laundering the money acquired from the deal.
It also accused Yameen of transferring the USD 1 million he had deposited to an account in a Shanghai Account back to his account at the Bank of Maldives BML and then transferring those funds along with that in the account to his account at the Islamic Bank.
Speaking at the hearing today, Yameen had initially said that the charges were still unclear to him. His legal team had then pointed out that the charges filed by the State lack when the crime was committed and how the crime was committed as well as other elements and requested the State for clarification.
The State had then said that the nature of the crime means that it cannot be committed while in a place, hence it was not vital that the time and place of the crime was defined and pointed out two other aspects of the case.
However, Yameen's defense team continued to insist that the charges were unclear but the presiding judge Ahmed Shakeel ruled that based on the Criminal Procedure Act, State Prosection had done its part to make the charges clearer.
Then, Yameen had said that he had not committed any acts the state had accused him of and that he denied the charges.
