Criminal Court has sentenced the former President, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom to five years in prison along with a fine of USD five million for money laundering.

The bench of five judges who oversaw the trial found him guilty of money laundering unanimously under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorist Financing Act, article 53 (a) and was hence sentenced to five years in prison and USD 5 million under article 53 (b) of the same act.

During the sentencing, Judge Ali Rasheed said that an account with Bank of Maldives under SOF Pvt. Ltd. had on two counts deposited USD 1 million to an account with Maldives Islamic Bank under President Yameen. President Yameen then had proceeded to transfer the money to a general investment plus account at the same bank where he invested the money over a 36 month period.

ACC instructed Yameen to move the deposited funds to the escrow account, however, President Yameen transferred US$ 1 million from his Bank of Maldives (BML) account instead of from the account in question. The transferred funds are reported to have been deposited into President Yameen's BML account by former Tourism Minister Moosa Zameer.