The Prosecutor General (PG)'s Office has appealed the Criminal Court’s dismissal of the corruption case filed against former Maldivian vice president and finance minister Abdulla Jihad.

PG Office challenged Criminal Court's decision that there was no room for further investigation at High Court on Sunday.

The main premise of the appeal in this case is that the Criminal Court's judgment does not provide a legal basis and the reason for reaching the decision is not adequately stated, the PG said.

The petitioner had requested the High Court to declare the matter as a matter to be adjudicated on the basis of material and directed the trial court to look into the matter.

Criminal Court ruled last month that Jihad had not been informed about the reasons for the previous government's asset recovery commission's decision to re-investigate the case after the Anti-Corruption Commission concluded that there was no corruption involved in the case.

The Court also noted that while the asset recovery commission of the previous government had taken cognisance of the case when the ACC had taken cognisance of the case and concluded it, it could not give any reason for re-examining the same case. The Court also noted that there is room for doubt in former Vice President Ahmed Adheeb's testimony as a person of interest in the case.

The judge said that considering these factors, the case could not proceed further.

Earlier, the PG Office had said that the Cabinet had on November 29, 2011 decided to enter into a joint venture agreement with 50 per cent government stake for the development of Fushidhiggaru as a special tourist zone. The decision was based on the fact that the government did not have to spend any money on the project and that the state should get the land rent for the project.

However, during his tenure as finance minister, Jihad had signed the island agreement in violation of the cabinet's decision, the PG office had said at the time.

The office said at the time that Jihad had signed an agreement with Prime Capital Maldives Limited to form a joint venture company with 25 percent stake in the State of Maldives instead of 50 percent.

Jihad's actions have resulted in a loss of USD 604,713,750 in land rent alone from the profits of the people and the state. It had earlier said that the change in shares from 50 percent stake in the state to 25 per cent would also result in losses from the company's business profits.

If the project had been carried forward as per Cabinet recommendation, land rent would fetch USD 411,720,000 over 50 years and prime location charges would be USD192,993,750 over 50 years. However, the state suffered huge losses due to the agreement signed by Jihad.