Charge withdrawn against presidential commission member

Prosecutor General’s Office has withdrawn the corruption charge against Ahmed Assad, a member of the Presidential Commission on Corruption and Asset Recovery.

Assad, a former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and former Financial Controller was charged by the State with corruption in mid-2018.

An official from the Prosecutor General’s Office reported to ‘Sun’ this Monday that the office decided to withdraw the charge in light new evidence.

The official said that while the charge stemmed from a letter sent by President’s Office to the Ministry of Finance informing of failure to receive previously agreed quantity of translations, a letter submitted by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) later showed the President’s Office granted permission for the publishing company, Novelty, to distribute some of the translations themselves.

The charge against Assad was pressed at the request of ACC, which noted in its investigative report on the case that the order by Assad to prepare an internal memo and release money despite the President’s Office noting it has not received the contracted quantity of translations and despite the Ministry of Islamic Affairs ordering State authorities to halt distribution of the translations over errors as an act of corruption.

The State had sued Assad for MVR 30 million in compensation.

The appointment of Assad – a person charged with corruption – to the Presidential Commission on Corruption and Asset Recovery has been criticized.

Another member of the commission, attorney Hana Waleed recently resigned from the commission amid public outrage over her appointment. She resigned from the commission citing possible grounds for conflict of interest.