Jameel: Charges pressed against Yameen, not because there is evidence

The head of former President Yameen Abdul Gayyoom’s legal team, former Vice President Dr. Mohamed Jameel Ahmed has stated that the State is pressing charges against Yameen in different cases, not because there is evidence.

Speaking at a press conference held at PPM’s headquarters by Yameen’s legal team, Jameel described the charges raised against Yameen as that of a personal grudge.

“None of the charges are being pressed because there are grounds to press charges. It is because he is Yameen. What I have to say is that there is nothing alarming regarding the cases which are present ongoing. Cases without a basis. Nothing constructive,” he had said.

He further said that money laundering charges are being pressed against Yameen for the purpose of harming him.

“Very clearly saying. Not an investigation carried out because there were reasonable suspicions. We did attend the interrogations. There is no correlation to him. But there is a reason for this. That is that a lot of things can be done to degrade a person in the eyes of the public,” he had said.

In addition to this, Jameel also referred to Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem as the “government’s prosecutor general”.

Yameen was found guilty of laundering USD 1 million from the sale of GA. Vodamula by the Criminal Court on November 28, 2019.  He was sentenced to five years in prison and fined USD 5 million. Yameen promptly appealed the conviction with the High Court, which sided against him and ruled to uphold the original sentence back in January.

He subsequently appealed the conviction with the Supreme Court, which began appeal proceedings in September. The Supreme Court ruled to overturn High Court’s decision to uphold the original sentence earlier today.