Ammaty approved to travel overseas for 14 days

Criminal Court, on Wednesday, has granted approval to SeaLife Global’s managing director Ahmed Moosa Mohamed (Ammaty) – who is on trial for defrauding over 200 tenants out of millions in booking fees for a planned apartment complex in suburban Hulhumale’ – to travel overseas for 14 days.

Ammaty’s passport has been withheld in connection to the charges against him.

Criminal Court, on Wednesday, said Ammaty lodged a request with the Court on November 16th asking to lift the travel ban on him and to allow him to travel overseas on bail after providing a guarantor.

As per the Court, the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG Office) conveyed no objection to Ammaty traveling overseas during a hearing held in the case on December 5th.

Henceforth, the Court has granted approval to Ammaty to travel to overseas a period of 14 days. However, the Court stated that Ammaty must return to the Maldives before the expiration of this timeframe.

SeaLife announced its 3,000-apartment housing project, the SeaLife Complex in Hulhumale’, back in 2015.

280 tenants paid a booking fee of MVR 50,000 (some more than MVR 50,000). But the SeaLife Complex was never built and the tenants were never reimbursed for their down payments.

The cumulative total of the booking fees collected by SeaLife is estimated to be upwards of MVR 14 million.

Ammaty, who had an Interpol red notice out for his capture since 2019, was arrested in neighboring Sri Lanka in February.

He was extradited to Maldives in March, and charged with 42 counts of embezzlement in May, which could see him behind bars for 65 years

He has pled not guilty in the case.