Ilyas denies corruption charges

Former Controller of Immigration Ilyas Hussain Ibrahim has denied the charges against him by the State, claiming that he used his post to obtain undue advantage to a particular group of people when awarding the Border Control System project to Malaysia’s Nexbis.

At the trial in Criminal Court today, Ilyas denied the claims against him, and his lawyer Ismail Wisham requested for 30 days to respond to the claims as the claims involve documents of 1,200 pages.

The State Prosecutor said while presenting the claims, that in 2009, the Finance Ministry sent a copy of the technical and price proposal to the Immigration Department after the Tender Evaluation Board of the ministry decided that the best proposal for the project was submitted by Nexbis.

She said that corruption charges were pressed against Ilyas because the technical proposal presented by Nexbis after the agreement was signed between the Maldivian government and Nexbis, and after the Immigration Department was asked by the Finance Ministry to commence the project, did not include the 29 scholarships and the 200,000 identity cards, which had been previously promised by Nexbis to the Maldivian government free of charge.

The charges against Ilyas are with reference to Article 12 (a) of the Corruption Prohibition and Prevention Act, and under Article 12 (b) of the Act.

Chief Judge of Criminal Court Abdullah Mohamed concluded today’s session of the trial after giving the opportunity to present the defence and evidence.

Charges have also been pressed against former Member of Tender Evaluation Board of Finance Ministry, Saamee Ageel, regarding the same issue. The trial against Ageel has not yet commenced.