Maldives high court overturns conviction of former President Abdulla Yameen News
Ministry of External Affairs (GODL-India), GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons
Maldives high court overturns conviction of former President Abdulla Yameen

The High Court of the Republic of Maldives, the country’s second-highest court, overturned on Thursday former President Abdulla Yameen’s conviction and cancelled his 11-year prison sentence. 

In an oral decision, the court found that the 2022 Criminal Court trial, which found Yameen guilty of money laundering and bribery charges, was unfair and had procedural irregularities. The High Court ordered that he be freed pending a new trial. Yameen has been under house arrest since October 2023. The court has not yet announced a new date for the trial.

The court also freed Naeem, who allegedly paid Yameen $1 million to receive a lease on an islet for tourism development. 

The court announced its decision just days before the Maldivian parliamentary election, in which Yameen is fielding candidates from the People’s National Front. Yameen formed the political party while serving his sentence. Yameen and his ally, President Mohamed Muizzu, are seen as pro-China while their political rivals in the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) are seen as pro-India and pro-Western. The election is scheduled for April 21. 

Tensions recently flared between the Maldives and India when Muizzu officially requested the withdrawal of Indian military personnel from the island by March 15. Subsequently, foreign affairs ministries from both nations released statements about the first bilateral meeting of a high-level core group. By March 12, India reportedly began withdrawing troops from the Maldives. 

Yameen was first arrested in 2019 when former president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih of the MDP was in power. Yameen was released from prison to house arrest after Muizzu took the presidency in 2023. 

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