Supreme Court of the Maldives, too, have supported the High Court ruling to overrule the Criminal Court decision to freeze the bank accounts of the former President, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom.

The former President’s legal team filed an appeal after the Criminal Court ordered the freezing of eight accounts at the Maldives Islamic Bank allegedly where the money from the islands leased by the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) were transferred to through the SOF Company.

Then on 31 March 2019, the High Court overruled the Criminal Court decision and the Prosecutor General’s Office appealed the case at the Supreme Court.

Today, the Supreme Court delivered their decision stating that that they support the High Court decision to overrule the Criminal Court decision.

At the hearing today, Supreme Court Judge, Husnu Suood said that the three judges on the case unanimously support the High Court decision that states that the Criminal Court ordered the freezing of the eight accounts outside the law.

Judge Suood said that police requested the accounts to be frozen as the accounts suspected to have money of the state acquired through corruption and without legal intervention that money could be lost to the state but failed to show a connection between the money in those accounts and the money is connected to the USD 1 million in the name of the former President at the Bank of Maldives which went to an escrow with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on 10 June 2018.

The panel on the Supreme Court bench for the case are Judge Aisha Shujoon and Judge Dr. Azmiralda Zahir.